CONTENTS
3-4 MUST READ: A Really
Disastrous Semester
(5 Months, Zero
Improvement): What
I Was Doing So Wrong
And How I Fixed It
5-6 ERROR CORRECTION:
Are Your ESL Students
Making These
10 Speaking Mistakes?
7
8
9
TABOO SUBJECTS:
Make Them Want to
Talk:
5 Taboo Subjects for
Your Teen Conversation
Class
TABOO SUBJECTS:
What the ****? 6 Ways
to Turn Bad Word
Explanations into a
Conversation Class
SLANG: 6 Activities
to Use TV to Teach
When Slang is
Appropriate
10 PRESENTATIONS:
Tweaking Speaking:
5 Ideas for
Presentations
11-12 PRESENTATIONS:
Using The News:
7 Steps to Fantastic
Student Presentations
13-14 MOTIVATION: 7
Ways to Motivate your
Students to Speak Out
15-16 MOTIVATION: How
To Energize Your Bored
Students With This
Great Game (Perfect
For
Any Level, Any Topic,
Any Size Of Group)
17 MOTIVATION: Speak
Speak Speak: 3 MORE
Activities That Motivate
Students to Speak
18 MOTIVATION: Use It
Or Lose It: 8 Awesome
ESL Activities To
Encourage Student
Initiative
19-20 DISCUSSION
STARTERS: 35 Print
And Go Discussion
Starters For ESL
Students:
The Secret Weapon
Every Teacher Needs
21 ROLE PLAYS:
The Ideal ESL Role
Play
In 5 Easy Steps
22-23 ROLE PLAYS: How
To Create Your Own
Role-Plays: 4 Quick
Tips On Inventing
Infinitely Flexible &
Dynamic Discussion
Environments Your
Students Will Love
24 GROUPS: 5 Ways to
Make Talking about
Me about Everyone in
a Group Conversation
Class
25 SMALL TALK: Chit
Chat and Small Talk:
5 Activities To Get
The Conversation
Started
With Your Students
26-27 GIVING ADVICE:
It’s Not a Problem:
4 Out of the Ordinary
Advice Giving Activities
28 FLUENCY: Repeat,
Reuse, Review:
Stepping Stones to
Fluency
32 SKILLS: How to Use
a Class Party to Teach
10 Social Conversation
Skills
33 SKILLS:Formality, Yea
or Nay? Help Your ESL
Students Know When
to Be Formal
with These Useful Tips
34-35 SKILLS: 10 Essential
English Skills Your
Students Need for
College
36 SKILLS: 5 Nifty Tips
on How to Help
Your ESL Student
Handle
Awkward Situations
37 SKILLS: When the
Going Gets Tough:
Teach
Your ESL Students
How to Manage
Difficult Situations
38-39 LEARNING
CENTERS: 10 Learning
Centers Perfect for
Listening
and Speaking Class
40-41 TEACHING
METHODS: DM? CLT?
TPR? 6 Most Popular
ESL Teaching Methods,
And Which One You
Should Be Using
42-43 MUST READ: No
Prep, Little Prep, and
More Prep Ways to Get
Your Students Ready to
Learn
29 FLUENCY: 4 Amazing
Ideas for AccuracyFluency Balance
44 MUST READ: How Was
Your ESL Lesson? How
To Assess Your Own
Teaching [Checklist]
30-31 OUTSIDE THE
CLASS: Get Them
Talking Outside of
Class: 3 Speaking
and Listening
Challenges
45 MUST READ: Running
dry? Make your ESL
lessons irresistible
with these ideas
to boost your creativity
A Disastrous Semester: What I Was
Doing So Wrong And How I Fixed It
I had a really disastrous semester
earlier this year.
I inherited a group of students of a very
low level, and all from the same country.
I thought, ‘No problem!’ I’d handled large,
elementary-level, mono-lingual classes before. After five months together,
though, I began to worry that I couldn’t
really see any improvement, at least by
the measure that I principally use: the
ability to spontaneously produce accurate and descriptive English.
The lack of achievement seemed to be
true across the board: vocabulary stayed
at a low level with little color or nuance,
pronunciation problems became hardcoded and stubborn, rather than gradually melting away, spoken grammar, in particular, was a real problem, with students
rejecting the idea of conjugating tenses
and using time expressions instead,
note-taking remained pretty poor and dictionary use was nearly unheard of.
I have to admit, I began to despair. What
could I be doing so wrong in my classes
as to have failed to help the students
overcome these basic difficulties? We
worked on every one of their problems
in short, targeted modules of twenty or
thirty minutes, aimed at raising awareness and encouraging self-correction,
but the following week, we were right
back at square one. I spent 5 months encouraging the use of modal verbs, but still
received answers such as, “I will maybe
go movies tonight,” and, “Remember his
books, maybe was better”. Frankly, I was
losing it.
Then, following a meeting with my colleagues to figure out what on Earth was
going on, we hit on the genesis of the
whole problem: Absolutely no practice
was happening.
We came to find that, irrespective of time
and effort expended in the classroom, it
was the students’ personal time which
governed their rate of progress and the
growth of their skills. Once they left the
classroom, they immediately switched
back to L1, and stayed in their home
language (and therefore, almost inevitably, their own cultural) environment until
they next walked into the classroom. This
was made worse by their housing situation – they lived in L1 groups which never
spoke any English, despite residing in a
major US city – and worse still by some
of my colleagues’ permitting L1 in the
classroom. I emphasize this because I
did not blame the students for their poor
progress -- I blamed the environment we
had created for them, and also certain
preconditioned learning styles with which
they arrived at the school and which
proved a major barrier to improvement.
6 STEPS TO ENSURING
GREAT PRACTICE
1
HELP STUDENTS TO GET RID
OF BAD HABITS
Check in often with your students and
find out what kind of practice they’ve
been doing. This was very revealing in
the case of the class I struggled with earlier this year. I found that students were
simply writing down the new word ten
times, or repeating it out loud, by itself,
others were merely listening to their electronic dictionary pronouncing the word
without doing either! Once we recognize
the habits our students already have, we
can steer them towards better methods.
I set homework which includes vocabulary practice in sentences. Students
sometimes take some convincing that
the extra work of producing a new sentence, just to practice one new word, is
worthwhile. Realistic sentence practice,
though, is a great boost to retention and
fluency, as the student has created a situation in which the word is needed: the
next time, they might well produce the
word spontaneously, and then we’ll be
making real progress.
OTHER GOOD HABITS INCLUDE:
•
Saying every new word a few times
- not for memorization, but for pronunciation, simply to get comfortable
with making that particular string of
sounds. Isolate the tricky sounds and
practice them individually, then practice the whole word. The teacher can
help by drilling the pronunciation, so
that the word has been formed and
spoken before the students leave the
classroom.
•
Writing down all new vocabulary in
a book specifically for that purpose,
and practice each difficult, new word
after each class.
•
Guessing from context before (or
instead of) reaching for a dictionary
whenever a new word comes up. The
dictionary should be a way to confirm
the students’ assumptions and get a
clear definition, but it shouldn’t ubiquitously be the first port of call
2
A REMINDER
OF THE REALITIES
I tried a couple of methods to encourage
my students to realize that a language
needs practice, like any other skill. Persuading them to view their work in terms
of skills acquisition, and not simply the
gaining of ‘knowledge’ was an important
early step.
I played them a YouTube video of the
legendary Russian pianist Evgeniy Kissin playing a dazzling masterpiece.
They were impressed, of course, despite
not being huge fans of classical music.
I asked how Kissin had, from nothing,
become able to perform with such ease
something so obviously difficult. Everyone knew the answer: practice. It was
also recognized that, had Kissin not practiced regularly and at length, he would
never have become the globe-trotting virtuoso he is today. Establishing this critical
causal link, however rudimentary it may
seem, is usefully illustrative for your students.
Invite your class to come up with their
own examples of someone who has put
in long, focused hours and achieved a
tremendous ability. The same point can
be made by watching a talented sportsman, or an interview with a great writer,
or someone who seems to be a savant,
with an incredible memory, but who simply practiced remembering things until
they became uncommonly good at it.
3
3
KEEP A RECORD
I’ve found that students are beginning to lose respect for paper.
Ten years ago, it was routine to find all
of the semester’s handouts and notes
carefully arranged in a labeled binder.
Nowadays, I’m seeing more and more
scattered, incoherent notes, and dogearned handouts scrunched forlornly
at the bottom of schoolbags.
Normally, I’d try to fight such changes, but here I think acceptance might
work better: ours is a digital age, and
the students are digital operators. So,
when it comes to keeping a record of
what they have achieved, that record
must also be digital.
Encourage your students to make
weekly recordings of themselves
reading a paragraph, or just conversing in English with others. A month
later, listening to the recording will
reveal a change in accent, or an embarrassing mistake, which the student
can compare to their contemporary
skills set. With luck – and consistent
practice – the student will see some
improvement.
4
CONSISTENCY IS KEY
Many young people are inexperienced in goal-setting and time management. Creating a simple Excel
spreadsheet to track their work is a
good way to bring some structure to
what is often a very disjointed learning
style. Daily requirements for speaking,
listening, reading and writing are articulated, and can be enjoyably checked
off once completed. Repeatedly emphasizing the importance of making
this practice a daily ritual might well
make the difference between a useful
habituation and its patchy, unsatisfactory opposite. There’s a good maxim
for this:
ONCE YOU’VE DONE IT FORTY TIMES,
IT’S A HABIT.
I believe this is true for almost anything: smoking, meditating, practicing,
getting up early, you name it.
Of special importance here are reading and writing, for me, the two skills
which are most de-emphasized by
21st century students’ learning styles.
A daily commitment to reading a few
pages, or a chapter, of a book, and to
writing a short journal entry or part of
4
a blog article, is a healthy way to address these important issues.
5
SYNONYMS, ANTONYMS
AND COLLOCATIONS
Learning the meaning and spelling
of a word is only part of the journey.
I always encourage students to write
synonyms and antonyms as part of
their practice: apart from being useful vocabulary review in its own right,
linking the word into a family of similar
words provides yet greater contextualization, and obliges the students to
consider aspects such as the relative
strengths of adjectives (is ‘exhausted’
stronger than ‘tired’, or ‘worn out’?),
or the relative register of two verbs
(which is more formal, ‘jot down’ or
‘note’?)
6
THE DANGER
OF ONE-WORD ANSWERS
Sometimes, all we’re looking for is a
confirmation that the students know
what’s going on. This leads, more
often for new teachers than for veterans, to dangerous and misleading
situations where the teacher asks, ‘Do
you understand?’
This habit is discussed elsewhere on
Busyteacher.org, but I’ll add my voice
if I may: please never ask this question. You almost certainly won’t get a
true answer, it’s an ineffective way of
checking understanding, and saying
‘yes’ in a big group is hardly what we
mean by production.
Here’s a classroom example of avoiding the ‘Do You Understand?’ issue
and requiring genuine production.
This was a multilingual class whom I
knew very well.
Teacher: OK, so how’s the weather
this morning?
Student 1: Cold.
Teacher: Really, Zhang? Maybe try
for more than one word?
Students: [Laughter... this is a theme
in my classroom and they’ve heard it
many times before]
Student 1: Today is cold.
Teacher: Did you hear that, guys? A
sentence!
Student 2: With a verb!
Teacher: Indeed so, Mr. Gao. What a
wonderful thing that was. Now, how
was the weather last night, when you
got home?
Student 3: Not so cold.
Student 4: Little cold.
Teacher: Well, I’ve got three words,
then two. Let’s go nuts. Who’s got
four?
Student 2: It was a little cold last night.
Teacher: Heavens above, it’s a miracle! Seven words! I can barely count
that high!
Students: [Laughter]
The teacher made a joke of it, but
there is the underlying theme: short
utterances are unlikely to convey
what you truly mean, don’t really help
the person you’re speaking with, and
offer an artificially truncated view of
your language skills. It may seem as
though I’m making fun of my class,
but they understand why I do it, both
through having seen this method before, and through being aware of my
obsession with full sentences and
complete answers. I leave them in no
doubt that:
PRODUCTION IS PRACTICE
and that
PRACTICE MEANS PRODUCTION.
I hope that your own students come
to this realization, and associate the
learning of a language with the producing of it.
Are Your ESL Students Making
These 10 Speaking Mistakes?
ESL STUDENTS PRACTICE SPEAKING,
READING, WRITING AND LISTENING,
BUT LET’S FACE IT. IT’S THE SPEAKING THAT PUTS THEM ON THE SPOT.
Whether they are foreign executives
or stay-at-home moms who want to
make new friends, speaking mistakes
might make them look bad. Let’s take
a look at the most common and see
how we can help our students move
past them towards better fluency.
10 SPEAKING
MISTAKES THAT YOUR
ESL STUDENTS NEED
TO OVERCOME
1
WRONG WORD ORDER
FOR QUESTIONS
What I can do to improve my
English?
Word order might pose a problem for
ESL students in general, but when it
comes to questions, the mistake is
glaring. This type of mistake when
asking questions is often accompanied by the wrong intonation (falling
instead of rising, in this case) which
makes the question sound like a
statement or an incomplete sentence.
2
COUNTABLE/
UNCOUNTABLE MIXUPS
There was much people at the
party.
It is very easy to tell when a student
has not effectively learned the difference between countable and uncountable nouns. They make mistakes with much, many, a little and
a few, and less and fewer, giving us
phrases like, “I have a few money”,
and “I read much books”.
3
WORD CHOICE
I love Disneyworld. It is very
funny.
There are words that ESL students
typically mix up: some are quite similar like fun and funny, or farther and
further, and there are others that are
easily confused like watch, see and
look.
4
REPETITION
OF THE SUBJECT
My company it is big.
Quite often, ESL students use a noun
as the subject of the sentence and
yet feel compelled to add the pronoun
right after it.
5
SUBJECT-VERB
AGREEMENT
He have a lot of money.
This is a big problem in both speaking
and writing. It is very common in ESL
learners but a hurdle they should definitely overcome if they want to make a
better impression when speaking.
6
WRONG PREPOSITION
I was born on 1991.
On, at or in? It is one of the most popular questions from students. They
use the wrong preposition in so many
cases and so often, it is impossible to
correct every single one.
7
CONFUSING PRONOUNS
My mother told me she
broke your leg.
“Your mother broke what?”, screeches
the ESL teacher. “I can assure you my
leg is not broken.” This is one of my
favorite mistakes to correct because
this confusion gives rise to all types
of funny statements, from students
claiming to have spent “your” money
to reports of parents having cleaned
“your” room.
8
MISTAKING WORDS
THAT ARE SIMILAR
IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE
My daughter is embarrassed and
will have her baby next month.
The student’s daughter has nothing to
be embarrassed about. The student
has made this mistake because the
word for pregnant in Spanish is embarazada, and sounds very similar
to embarrassed. Each language has
words that may sound a lot like words
in English but have completely different meanings, and students should be
careful with these. Also similar to this
mistake is “inventing” words in English by applying typical patterns (involucrated instead of involved from the
Spanish involucrado).
9
USING INAPPROPRIATE
LANGUAGE
Hi! What’s up? (said to a customer)
Even after we get all of the grammatical mistakes out of the way, ESL students still have a hard time figuring
out what is appropriate or inappropriate depending on the context.
10
USING
THE WRONG STRESS
It’s nice to meet you.
A student may say something that
is perfectly correct, grammatically
speaking, but what happens if they
put the stress on the wrong word? It
may lead to confusion or misunderstanding. Consider the difference between, “He didn’t pay for one lesson”
vs “He didn’t pay for one lesson”.
HOW TO HELP
OUR STUDENTS
MOVE PAST THESE
SPEAKING MISTAKES
There are two tiers to correcting and
improving these mistakes. The first
tier is the easiest to attack: it is composed of the typical grammatical errors students can work on through
extended practice and worksheets.
The second tier involves things that
students have a hard time grasping,
like the difference between informal
and more formal language, intonation
and stress, as well as the other nuances of the English language.
HOW TO CORRECT
TYPICAL GRAMMAR
MISTAKES
When it comes to correcting grammar
mistakes while students are speaking,
every ESL teacher comes to this hard
realization: you can’t correct every
single mistake. Firstly, it seriously hin-
5
ders fluency and does not help boost
morale if students are being corrected
every few seconds or so. Secondly, it
simply can’t be done. Not unless you
record what a student says and replay it so you can correct every single
mistake. As in most things in life, we
need to pick our battles, and here’s
how you can choose which grammar
mistakes to correct:
•
Things they should already know
by now, like the conjugation of the
third person singular in the simple
present (he takes)
•
Problems that are shared by several students
•
Mistakes that are repeated again
and again by the same student
•
Mistakes that are connected to
the lesson goal (i.e., talk about
things that happened in the past)
How can we correct these mistakes in
a way that won’t affect overall fluency? Because the student is speaking,
and you won’t want to interrupt him or
her, the best course of action is to find
some way of signaling the mistake.
For example, if the same student typically forgets the s in the third person
singular, trace an s in the air or flash a
card with the letter s when they make
this mistake.
HOW TO IMPROVE
MISTAKES THAT ARE
MORE SUBTLE
How does a student come to understand that it’s ok to say something
is very expensive, but not very fabulous? How does a student know when
to ask, “What’s up?” and when to ask,
“How have you been?” One of the keys
is exposure. Exposure to the English
language, especially outside the ESL
classroom. The more ESL students
hear native English speakers using
expressions correctly, using sarcasm
and colloquial phrases, greeting others and making jokes, the easier it will
be for them to grasp these differences
and start using them themselves. In
addition to exposure, role plays are
instrumental in teaching proper intonation, word stress and the use of appropriate expressions. I recommend:
6
•
Letting a pair of students carry out
the role play as presented to them
•
Taking notes while they speak
•
Congratulating them on their efforts
•
Offering praise for something they
did particularly well (use of set
phrases)
•
Offering suggestions for improvement or correcting mistakes (used
the right expression but with the
wrong intonation, for example)
•
Asking them to try it again, keeping the suggestions/corrections in
mind
SPEAKING IS OFTEN A SOURCE
OF GREAT FRUSTRATION FOR ESL
LEARNERS.
While our job is to correct their mistakes, we must also strive to do so
in an encouraging and supportive
environment. Instead of focusing on
correcting mistakes, let’s help them
achieve better fluency.
Make Them Talk: 5 Taboo Subjects
for Teen Conversation Class
NO MATTER WHAT CULTURE YOU ARE
TEACHING, IT IS PROBABLE THAT, IF
YOU TEACH BEGINNER TO INTERMEDIATE LEVEL YOUNG TEENS (13-17
YEAR OLDS), YOU FIND THAT THEY ARE
SUDDENLY SHY, UNRESPONSIVE, DO
NOT LIKE LISTENING, AND EVEN RUDE
SOMETIMES.
These universal teen traits often make
the ESL conversation instructor’s normal
tricks useless. What topics keep them
interested and break the barriers? A
strategy is to work with the rebellion/burgeoning independence, “badness”, need
for peer acceptance, and curiosity that
come with the age. Try presenting some
of these “taboo” conversation questions
in class.
For this to work, the ESL instructor
needs to first establish trust and a sense
of camaraderie that gets them to share.
Put the questions, or similar ones related to the categories, on little cards
and pass them out. Have the students
sit in a circle and read their questions
and begin the conversation topics one
by one. If they do not respond naturally,
introduce an example, preferably something personal, even if you are inventing
it! If they still do not respond, poll them
to begin and offshoot questions from the
poll results.
TRY THESE 5 TABOO
SUBJECTS FOR
YOUR NEXT TEEN
CONVERSATION CLASS
1
LYING AND CHEATING
They all lie and most have cheated
on a test and feel better when they hear
about someone else that has done the
same. Two conversation starter questions are:
• Have you ever lied to your mom or
dad? Why? About what?
• Have you ever cheated on a test?
Which subject?
If they do not respond right away, tell
them you cheated on your algebra test
in ninth grade because you could not
memorize the equations! They will relate. If that still does not work, ask the
question as a poll. This is a good way to
get the class started with gradual sharing.
•
How many of you have cheated on
a test?
Then pick on a few with their hands
raised and ask which subjects. This will
definitely open up a conversation that
engages them about which subjects are
hard to study! Polling works for any of
these subjects.
2
TREATING PEOPLE POORLY
AND REGRETTING IT
We have all treated our little brother
poorly and felt bad later, especially
at this moody age. Usually we do not
apologize and try to forget about it, but
it feels good to admit the transgression
and can be very humorous when we talk
about it.
• What was something you said or did
to someone that you regretted later?
How did it make you feel?
This focuses on past tense and is great
for practicing feelings vocabulary. A
starter example is “I ate the piece of
cake my brother put in the refrigerator.
I felt bad when he told me he brought it
home for my grandmother.”
3
GHOSTS AND PARANORMAL
Ask them about paranormal experiences and occult beliefs. Teens of
this age are trying to cope with identifying with beliefs and faiths and like talking about and exploring different ideas.
Ghosts and the paranormal is lighter
subject matter than God existing or
heavy religious banter, however, and
usually are very engaging subjects for
teens. At minimum, you will get one or
two students to tell stories to which everyone will listen. They are curious what
their peers believe. TheTwilight series,
horror movies, and other occult films all
are marketed to teens for a reason!
• Have you ever seen a ghost?
Where? What did it look like?
• Do you believe in astrology? What
sign are you?
• Do you think vampires exist? Do you
know one?
• Can you tell the future? Do you know
someone who can?
This practices storytelling, as well as
past, present, and future tense. It will
bring up some good new vocabulary for
the students as well!
4
SECRET CRUSHES
They all have secret crushes at this
age and like to pester each other about
it. If you want to keep the conversation
light, focus on pop stars/athletes. If the
students know each other better, you
could ask a general question about the
perfect boy/girlfriend. These questions
will practice traits vocabulary, “if I could”
conditional, and can create additional
conversations about sports, music, and
TV.
• If you could meet someone you have
a secret crush on, who would it be?
• What is your perfect girlfriend like?
• Do you have a boyfriend? What
does he look like?
5
PERSONAL APPEARANCE
All teens feel awkward in their bodies, and, with constant Facebook and
media exposure globally, they compare
themselves to famous people and wish
they could look different somehow! This
is a very funny conversation topic for
students of this age if you keep it light –
focus on who they think is most beautiful
and why instead of making it too personal. This subject will practice describing
people, present and conditional tenses,
and will end up being a good vocabulary
lesson.
• Who is the most beautiful person in
the world? Why?
• Which is more attractive – to be a
little fat or too skinny?
• How much make up is too much – or
is there never too much?
• Do actresses show too much skin
on TV?
• If you could change anything about
yourself, what would you change?
IF YOU ARE TRYING TO GET TEENS TO
TALK, AND ARE STUMPED, TRY SOME
OF THESE TOPICS!
You will find that not only will they participate, but they will also listen. Furthermore, your students will be begging
for the new vocabulary to communicate
their thoughts. We have to try to relate
on the level of our students if we want
them to learn how to communicate, so
have fun doing so and be a teen again
with them!
7
6 Ways to Turn Bad Word Explanations into a Conversation Class
THIS HAPPENS TO EVERY ESL
TEACHER. STUDENTS WILL ASK YOU
WHAT VULGAR WORDS MEAN IN
ENGLISH.
Ignoring them might work for a while, but
it is best to approach the subject professionally and offer an explanation for the
word or phrase or question. Here are 6
ways to broach the slippery subject and
even turn it into an interesting conversation class.
TRY THESE 6 WAYS
TO TURN BAD WORD
EXPLANATIONS INTO A
CONVERSATION CLASS
1
WHAT THE ****?
In English, especially in American
English, we know it is a serious faux pox
to use certain four letter words, even to
the point where it is illegal in public media. They are powerful expletives though
that attract attention, hence why we use
them in common speech and why students want to know what they mean.
•
Write the list of vulgar words for
them horizontally on the board, and
explain that they are very strong
communication tools, yes, but usually carry a negative and even angry
tone. Alternatively, a speaker can attract attention from creative speech.
•
Task students to think of 3 words that
rhyme with each vulgar word that
have positive or humorous meanings like “duck”, “spit”, and “spell”.
Place a box or hat under each vulgar word and have them write their
three rhyme words on small papers
and place in each box.
•
Then, write common expressions
like “what the ****” on the board and
have students take turns selecting
papers at random from the boxes
and inserting their silly/positive
words in the expressions.
2
YOU’RE SUCH A…
English speakers can be quite
confrontational and get involved with
nasty name calling either directly to
someone in anger or behind someone’s
back. These mean names are heard on
TV, movies, songs, and on the street.
8
Students will ask you what they mean.
If they do, be prepared and explain
that it is never nice to use these words,
and would it not be better if we lived
in a world where people only said nice
things about others?
• Give students a homework assignment to open their ears and record
five nice things people say to each
other on the street or in pop culture if you do not live in an English
speaking country.
• Provide examples like, “You’re such
a sweetie!” or “She’s so bubbly!”
It will help them focus on positive aspects of colloquial language, and you
will have a great conversation class
the next week when they explain where
they heard these words!
3
GET DOWN
Pick a particularly vulgar word
heavy dance song, better if it is one students know, and even better yet if it is
one they hear on the radio often.
• Print the lyrics and play the song,
asking students to circle what they
assume are colloquial words.
• Then, go through the song and rewrite the bad words with less vulgar
words that have a more lighthearted
connotation after explaining what
they mean. Ask students first what
they think the words mean. Older
teenagers are probably just trying to
embarrass you by asking what they
mean, so embarrass them instead!
• Play the song again and have students sing/read along with the new
language.
This activity will result in an engaging
conversation and vocabulary lesson.
4
CUT!
Show a clip from a popular “R”
rated movie with bad language, like a
gangster film, preferably one they have
seen.
• Download and print a transcript of
the dialogue and show the clip with
subtitles.
• Have them circle the bad words
while watching.
• Then discuss how those words were
used in the film by the speakers to
relay meaning, add significance to
speech, etc.
5
EMBRACE IT
For your older teens or young
adults, embrace the swear words and
teach them how to use them properly
in conversation. Write down commonly
used swear expressions, like “what the
hell” and “that pissed me off”, on papers
with definitions on the back, and have
students in pairs come to the front of the
class and draw one each from a box.
Ask them to try to use the phrases in a
quick dialogue together. For example,
they could say:
• “What the hell? He didn’t give you a
birthday present?”
• “No! It really pissed me off.”
Students can work in pairs or groups
to invent a dialogue at their desks first
if you think they will need more time to
consider the phrases.
6
YOU TELL ME
WHAT IT MEANS
Alternatively, embrace the swear or colloquial words by asking students to write
down three that they hear on the street
or in music/on TV for homework and to
try to discover what they mean by asking other English speakers they know.
• Have the students put the words on
different papers with the definitions
on the back, and ask them to place
them in a box when they enter class
that day.
• Students can take turns picking
words out of the box and reading
the definitions. If the definition is
wrong, correct it.
• Then, ask the student to try to use
the word in a sentence appropriately. If she cannot, find out where
the contributor heard the word and
what type of reaction the definer of
the word had when she asked him/
her about it!
IT CAN BE AN EMBARRASSING
MOMENT FOR YOU OR FOR YOUR
CLASS WHEN STUDENTS ASK WHAT
THOSE FOUR LETTER WORDS MEAN.
Now you can turn it around into a fun activity that engages their English learning
skills and helps them practice conversation! The oral power that makes these
words so popular can help energize
your class and engage your students.
6 Activities to Use TV to Teach
When Slang is Appropriate
NATIVE SPEAKERS, EVEN THE MOST
EDUCATED AND REFINED, REGULARLY USE SLANG IN CONVERSATION.
In fact, we unconsciously hone slang
depending on the cultural situation in
which we are. Demonstrating those situations through TV can be particularly
helpful in your ESL/EFL conversation
course, especially when students are
trying to reach a more fluent conversational level. The following are six activities that use TV to teach EFL students
when certain slang is not only acceptable, but appropriate.
HOW TO TEACH
EFL STUDENTS
WHEN SLANG
IS APPROPRIATE
1
BE COOL
To be accepted in a social group,
we need to be cool, and, to be cooler,
we incorporate slang modifiers into
conversation. Teenagers might use
more slang modifiers than educated
adults, but educated adults do use
them as well, especially in relating to
their teen offspring. Cool, awesome,
and all of their slang modifier cousins
are important words to incorporate into
the EFL student’s vocabulary. Use any
of a number of teen TV shows and
pick a scene heavy in “cool” and “uncool” speak. Glee is a perfect choice.
Prepare a list of slang words students
will hear and ask them to mark which
words/phrases are “cool” and which
mean “uncool”. Discuss the right answers.
2
IT’LL BE ALRIGHT
We use slang when we are comforting someone confiding in us about
something negative that happened to
her, or something about which she is
scared or worried. We break out clichés and colloquial speech as a familiarity cultural tool to help soothe. TV is
full of emotionally dramatic situations
between confidantes: nearly any prime
time sitcom or drama has at least one
scene per episode of people in crisis.
Pick a moment between friends or
relatives, preferably women as they
receive more emotional dialogue time.
Use a dialogue between Lily and Robin
in How I Met Your Mother, for example. This activity will work better if it is
a short three minute clip that you can
show a few times. Find the transcript.
Blank out the confiding/comfort slang,
and ask students to try to fill in the
words they hear as you play the clip.
Play it twice. Then, go over what the
phrases were and what they mean in
formal English.
3
OH MY GOD!
EFL learners need to understand
slang to express surprise. Conversation with natives will be impossible to
comprehend otherwise. Pick a TV clip
where an actor is revealing a crazy
event to a group and they react. Nearly
any coffeehouse scene from Friends
where all six are together works. Have
students write the surprise expressions
they heard on the board, and then
brainstorm additional expressions they
know or have heard in other places as
well. Afterwards, have them practice
using expressions in conversation. Ask
each student to tell a partner the craziest thing that happened to him the
week before. His partner should react
with a surprise idiom, like “Wow, that’s
crazy!” They should write down the
conversation, switch roles, and repeat.
4
TELLING STORIES AT THE
OFFICE
Generally, maintaining formality at the
office is a good rule of thumb. If your
EFL learners do so all the time, however, they will have no friends, confidantes, or allies. Every workplace
thrives on comic relief periodically
throughout the day with people gossiping or telling stories. Those are the
moments when people use slang in
the workplace. Teach your students to
identify informal moments and appropriately react to them by listening for
slang. Show a TV clip from The Office
(almost any) that has two scenes contrasting formal and informal language,
Angela with Dwight and then with Mi-
chael, for example. Doctor shows are
good for this as well, to contrast how
doctors talk to patients and then to colleagues in the break room. Ask students in a discussion afterwards which
slang words indicate an informal break.
5
WHAT UP?
Slang greetings have varying
levels of formality, and it is important
to know what the formality level is to
respond appropriately. Show any TV
clip where people are greeting each
other. A party scene with different social levels of people is probably a more
helpful tool than a work setting. Use
the clip as a launching point to discuss
different greeting language. Write as
many greetings as they can think of,
from the clip and from their encounters
with English from other places, on the
board. Ask students to rate each based
on a formality meter of one to five, one
being informal and five being formal.
Then, ask them one by one to respond
to the greetings. If you ask “What up?”
they should reply “Not much” instead of
“I am well” or a more formal response.
6
I DIG HER
Romance and sexual language is
full of slang and can make an extremely
fun conversation class! Keep it light by
showing a dialogue clip from a PG TV
show, one with teenagers talking about
crushes or young love is ideal. Charlie
explaining relationships to his nephew
in Two and a Half Men would work.
Students should pick out how slang is
used to talk about romance. Then, separate the class into two groups and ask
the students to form two lines. Throw
out different slang romance terms, like
“I dig her” and “she’s tripping”. The
groups should take turns guessing how
to translate the terms to plain English.
WE FOCUS MOST OF OUR TEACHING TIME ON PROPER GRAMMAR
AND DICTIONARY WORDS, BUT, IN
REAL LIFE, KNOWING SLANG AND
WHEN TO USE IT WILL AID YOUR EFL
STUDENTS.
Students will dig these exercises!
9
Tweaking Speaking:
5 Ideas for Presentations
DID YOU KNOW THAT PUBLIC SPEAKING IS THE #1 FEAR IN NORTH
AMERICA? THE SECOND GREATEST
FEAR IS DEATH!
The thought of giving a presentation is
scary enough for native speakers, but
for ESL students, speaking in front of a
group of people in a second language is
even more nerve-wracking. Many students have a tendency to freeze when
they are “on stage”, which can result
in robotic like recitations of memorized
speeches or an overreliance on notes
that leads to reading aloud rather than
speaking freely. One of the things we
as teachers can do to help students
progress as speakers in front of an audience is to design stimulating and fun
presentation topics. Hopefully, the more
engaged students are with their topic,
the more they will relax and deliver a
presentation that flows more naturally.
TRY THESE 5
PRESENTATION IDEAS
WITH YOUR STUDENTS
1
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Some students are deeply frightened at the prospect of presenting in
front of their peers and teachers. One
of the ways that instructors can ease
students into the role of presenter is to
create a poster session in which each
student has the opportunity to share
ideas with a small audience multiple
times. Poster sessions work great for
just about any topic, and they allow
students to create a visual aid that they
can then explain to a rotating audience.
Students can hang their posters on the
walls around a room and have visitors
(perhaps students from another class)
mingle and browse. When people stop
to see a poster, the creator has an opportunity to present the information
they have included on their poster to a
small group in a more relaxed setting.
Then, the student has the chance to do
it again when the next visitor stops by
to take a look, allowing the student to
present the same information multiple
times, hopefully getting better and better with each “mini-presentation.”
10
2
IMPROMPTU SITUATIONS
Your students will really enjoy
fun and creative, even silly, impromptu
speaking tasks, as scary as they may
seem at first. If a teacher is working
on developing speaking skills with students, a great daily warm-up is to write
down various scenarios or topics, cut
them into strips, and have students
randomly choose one. Topics can be
serious or wacky -- the important thing
is that students are talking! The more
practice students have with delivering
even short, random, speaking exercises in front of a group, the more comfortable they will ultimately be when it
comes time to deliver planned, formal
presentations.
Here are some examples:
• Pretend you are an ant, try to convince an anteater not to eat you!
• Explain how to ask a girl on a date.
• Pretend that you have just seen a
dinosaur in New York City, try to get
someone to believe you!
3
HAVE STUDENTS CREATE
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL
AND BIOGRAPHICAL
DOCUMENTARIES
If a course is long enough, having students collaborate on a mini-documentary can be an excellent way to unleash
their creativity. Working in groups or
individually, students can design and
produce a video that explores their own
lives or the lives of someone else, famous or unknown. This fun, engaging
project can be a long-term one that
students work on over a significant period of time, or it can be designed as
a shorter task that students create in a
few days. If time is really limited, students can do a presentation on how
they would plan and approach making a
documentary, rather than actually producing it.
4
5 TIPS ABOUT SOMETHING
FAMILIAR
Students get most excited about content that is relevant to their own lives.
Some of the pressure that students feel
when giving a presentation can be alleviated by ensuring that the topic is
something that they are already knowledgeable about. Creating a presentation assignment in which students offer
“5 Tips” to their classmates can be a
great way to get students excited about
presenting. This is a great way to allow
students to display their individuality,
too. Teachers can provide a list of potential topics in case students get stuck
when trying to decide what to present
about, but many students will be eager
to share their expertise about a topic of
their own choosing.
5
ASSIGN CLASS VISITS
For academic, college-preparatory ESL programs, designing an assignment in which students visit regular
university courses can be an exciting
and eye-opening opportunity. When
students are able to witness the academic environment that they will eventually fully be a part of, they are able
to better understand the importance of
the preparation that they need to do to
develop the requisite proficiency to undertake study at an international institution of higher learning. Once students
have visited one or two academic classes, they can prepare a short presentation, answering targeted questions, and
share the experience with their classmates. Students will benefit not only
from their own class visits, but also from
hearing about their classmates’ experiences.
PRESENTATIONS ARE INEVITABLE
PART OF A SPEAKING CURRICULUM,
BUT THEY CAN OFTEN LEAVE STUDENTS FRAUGHT WITH ANXIETY.
By creating fun, guided speaking presentation assignments, students can
grow more comfortable with speaking in front of an audience. Be sure to
give students some say in the topic that
they chose: the more personal interest
a student has in what they will present
about, the easier it will be to get excited
about doing so!
Using The News: 7 Steps to
Fantastic Student Presentations
I’M GETTING WORRIED ABOUT
SOMETHING I’VE NOTICED IN MY
CLASSROOM.
My 16-25 year old students are smart,
enthusiastic and tech-savvy, but very
often I find a real lack of ‘worldliness’
and I think the ESL classroom is a
great place to fill those gaps. I’m talking about knowing the names of the
world’s continents and countries, and
of major political, religious and historical figures. Just as importantly,
students need to be aware of world
events, familiar with the major trends
and philosophies of our time, and conversant in the topic areas which will
dominate this century, and their lives.
A recent survey of my high-level class
revealed – to my amazement, I have
to admit – that Twitter had become
their main news source. Even more
surprisingly, many could not name a
cable news anchor, or a respected
print journalist, or any more than a
handful of the world’s great newspapers and journals. I’m the first to recognize that the digital age is driving
our students’ media consumption. It’s
just that I’m worried they’re missing
out on great journalism, on incisive
commentary and on that in-depth
analysis which really helps us to understand the world around us.
This demands reading skills, of
course. It also requires the confidence
to open a newspaper, or click on an
online article from The Economist or
Britain’s excellent Guardian, unruffled by the high-level vocabulary and
structures, and simply willing to give it
a try. News-reading depends also on
tackling something younger people
are being trained to avoid: lengthy articles which require sustained focus.
With practice, these problems fall
away, allowing students to read the
full range of scholarly and journalistic
material, thereby enriching both their
life experience and their language
skills.
To meet this problem head-on, I developed a weekly 90-minute exercise
to train newspaper reading, summa-
rizing and presentation skills. Students have found this challenging and
informative, and have grown more
confident when discussing complex
themes and international events. Just
as importantly, this training has removed barriers which prevent broader, deeper reading, and awoken a
more open-minded consciousness
-- the gaining of a more global awareness helps to mitigate prejudice, and
alleviates the students’ fear of the unknown.
Beyond initial setup, the teachers’
role is largely supervisory, giving the
students plenty of independence. The
requirement to present to their classmates gives good reasons for them to
carefully prepare. Here’s how it can
be done:
TRY THESE 7 STEPS TO
FANTASTIC STUDENT
PRESENTATIONS
USING THE NEWS
1
STRENGTHEN YOUR NEWS
BACKGROUND
A useful, initial step is to ensure that
your own understanding of world
trends is in good shape. When a news
story breaks, consider whether you
could describe why this might have
happened, and what effects it could
have. Check that you know the basics on the major world leaders, the
systems of government in the leading
nations, and the names and recent
activities of the biggest companies.
Anticipate questions the students
might ask when something big happens.
2
GET THE LATEST INTEL
The evening before class, or
ideally at the beginning of the school
day, browse the news and tease out
between four and seven stories. Try
to pick events which will be relevant
to your students, which will have a
global impact, or which connect with
topic areas you’ve recently discussed.
Check for interesting stories in these
areas, among others:
• Elections
(major
campaign
speeches, accusations of voterigging, predictions, results)
• Government policies (security,
environment, society, business,
drugs, personal freedom)
• International Affairs (agreements,
conflicts, treaties, wars of words,
presidential visits)
• Sports Events (major trophies,
broken records, scandals, transfers, new managers)
• Celebrity news (marriages, breakups, awards, troubles, new projects, the Twittersphere)
• Obituaries (former leaders and
royalty, influential business people and academics, artists)
•
•
•
•
•
•
Science (ISS events and space
launches, discoveries, controversies, publications, awards)
Extreme weather (hurricanes, typhoons, tsunamis, unusual or unseasonal weather)
Entertainment (new movie, album
and book releases, popular plays,
important concerts)
Technology (new releases, predictions about the future, customer comments, controversies)
Business (mergers/acquisitions,
successes, bankruptcies, major
appointments, scandals)
Environment (signs of global
warming, geo-engineering proposals, debates)
3
WRITE SHORT QUESTIONS
A one-page handout detailing
the stories, perhaps accompanied
by hints on good sources, will enable
students to start researching immediately. Typical questions include:
• “The Chinese government announced a relaxation of the onechild policy this week. Why has
this happened? Tell us about the
current demographics in China
and how this policy might affect
Chinese society.”
• “India launched a spacecraft to
Mars yesterday. Give the class a
short history of Mars exploration
11
•
– are there any particularly successful probes? How many have
failed? What does the Indian mission hope to achieve?”
“The investment bank J P Morgan
is being fined $2.6 billion for its
role in the Bernie Madoff scandal.
Briefly summarize this infamous
Ponzi scheme. Why was the bank
found to be at fault? Who will receive the money?”
4
PAIR UP
AND CHOOSE FAVORITES
Research can be done alone, but I
find that pairs or groups of three permits a more ‘integrated skills’ environment: the students read, write down
notes, discuss the story and listen to
what their partners have found. Once
the groups are established, I let the
students choose two stories (a favorite and a backup) and then use
varying methods to decide who gets
to choose first: age (in descending or
ascending order), name (alphabetical or reverse), order they arrived at
school, etc.
5
INFORMATION FLOW
As the groups research, encourage the constant sharing of their findings, and plenty of note-taking. Ensure the students use their own words
when taking notes, rather than copying verbatim from the news source.
Assist in finding good sources, and
avoiding disreputable, biased or poorquality reporting: the ability to make
these distinctions is a skill in itself,
and many students need help with
this. Once the notes look complete
and useful, the students should organize their presentation and plan so
that the speaking is divided equally.
6
PRESENTATION TIME
Ensure the ‘audience’ is listening (computers closed, phones away,
pens down) and encourage the students to speak clearly and slowly,
avoiding new or overly technical vocabulary. Clarify and check words,
names and concepts as needed. Ask
a couple of comprehension questions.
7
QUESTION TIME
Invite questions at the end of
the presentation, and take time to discuss the news event with the class:
are there any strong feelings about
12
it? Try to bring in everyone, inviting
opinions and predictions. Enthusiastic
applause should conclude each presentation.
I HOPE THIS PROVES USEFUL IN
HELPING STUDENTS TO DISCARD
THEIR FEAR OF READING, IN DEVELOPING THEIR SUMMARIZING AND
PRESENTATION SKILLS, AND IN
EXPANDING THEIR HORIZONS.
7 Ways to Motivate
your Students to Speak Out
IT IS COMMONPLACE IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM FOR STUDENTS TO BE
MORE RELUCTANT WHEN IT COMES
TO SPEAKING.
While they excel in the other skills,
they find it difficult to speak, not because they do not know how to, but
because they are afraid to do so.
This is even more problematic when
it comes to older learners and adults
as there is the common fear of making
a fool of themselves in front of their
peers. There are, of course those
more unique learners who will try to
dominate the ESL classroom when it
comes to speaking, however, more often than not this is not the case and
when it does happen it also limits the
less confident learners. What they
need more than instruction is confidence and the motivation to speak out
in class and not be afraid to do so.
As ESL teachers it not only our duty
to teach, but it is also our duty to motivate our learners to speak out and
participate. We need to help reduce
their fears and provide a comfortable
environment for them to learn and to
make them feel more at ease. Speaking is by far the most important skill
needed when it comes to ESL learning. Speaking is everywhere in real
life and even though the learners may
be able to avoid skills such as reading and writing English in real life, it
is not the case with speaking. So how
can we motivate our learners to really
love speaking English? What can we
do to help reduce fear and give them
the confidence they really need?
Those students who have more of a
positive attitude when it comes to language learning will be less likely to
suffer from performance and learning
anxiety thus making them participate
more. Here are a couple of useful tips
and techniques that you as an ESL
teacher could implement in the classroom to help those more reluctant to
speak out.
GIVE LANGUAGE
LEARNERS ENOUGH
CONFIDENCE
TO SPEAK
1
REDUCE LEVELS
OF DIFFICULTY
In most cases we want to challenge
our learners – we want to push them
to the next level and excel. We want
to maintain their interest by making
exercises more challenging so the
learners do not grow complacent and
bored. However, this should be the
opposite for speaking, as students
already have less confidence when
it comes down to it. If the teacher reduces the levels slightly at the beginning, the students will feel less pressure and therefore they will be more
motivated to speak.
2
SHARE EXPERIENCES
Sometimes ESL course books
are way off when it comes to being
realistic. If the ESL student can realistically relate to what has been asked
and has the knowledge to answer
about it, they will have a lot more confidence, therefore, it is important for the
teacher to tailor the lessons and adapt
the course book material. Imagine an
adult learner discussing their favorite
subjects at school – it just does not
work. Students will be more motivated
when they see that the teacher has
taken into consideration their needs
and interests and have included them
somehow in the lesson. Teachers
are advised to collect information via
needs analysis and surveys at the
beginning of a session for a number
of reasons, and other than finding out
what they already know, finding out
their interests and needs to base their
lessons on comes in closely at second in terms of importance.
3
TOLERANCE OF L1 USAGE
Imagine going into a language
class for the first time where the language is completely foreign to you
such as Japanese or Arabic. Imagine
in the first class having to introduce
yourself in this language and having
to communicate – impossible? You
will naturally feel insecure, ill at ease
and unhappy about the situation – the
majority of participants would most
likely clam up and be more reluctant to
speak. In lower levels of any language
the learners do not have enough of
the language to communicate and express their ideas or opinions. Although
this goes against the main idea of ESL
teaching, it does hold some truth – let
them speak some of their L1. There
have been some teachers who have
demanded absolutely no other language other than in English in the
classroom – the result? A very quiet
classroom. Teachers need to try and
be a little bit more compassionate
and tolerant when learners use their
L1, especially if they are trying to understand through another student.
If we make the learners feel humiliated or ashamed of using their L1 to
help their L2 the chances are they are
likely to say nothing. However, there
are of course some times when learners take advantage of the situation
and use their L1 when it is not necessary – in this case, it is the task of the
teacher to guide the students back to
communicating in English.
4
DON’T INTERRUPT
Students, when speaking their
L2 get distracted easily, they lose
their train of thought and not to mention their confidence is knocked if
the teacher is constantly interrupting
them. Imagine having every second
word corrected for pronunciation,
grammar, usage and so on – it would
be more than frustrating. Instead let
your learners speak freely without interruptions and if they make mistakes,
note them down and address them in
class later. When addressing the class
with regards to spoken errors, collate
the most common and important ones
(not every tiny detail needs to be addressed) and give a mini workshop to
the entire class and not just one student. If one student makes a mistake
in speaking, the chances are that oth-
13
ers will make the same mistakes too.
At the end of the day if the students
are allowed to continue speaking
without being interrupted, they will not
associate speaking with a negative
experience.
5
EQUALITY
It is a common thing for the
teacher to split their class into small
groups for speaking and communicative activities. However, teachers often make the mistake of not defining
the roles and there will always be one
or two students who are more vocal
than the others thus the conversation
or activity will be dominated by just a
few people and as a result the other
students will feel like they do not have
a specific role, they will not feel motivated to participate - and why should
they, when they have not been given
a purpose? Make sure your groups
are equally divided for speaking and
communicative activities so everyone
can participate.
6
FOLLOW-UP WITH MORE
QUESTIONS
Students will often give a short or inadequate answer because they cannot think of anything to say. They feel
under pressure and it is much easier
to give up and appear lazy rather
than admit they cannot do it. If your
students give short answers it could
actually be that they have nothing
else to say on the issue or they do
not have the language or confidence
to express themselves for longer periods of time. Students hate it when
teachers prompt them by giving one
or two words at the beginning of the
answer – it makes them feel like they
are children. Instead help your learners by asking them relevant follow-up
questions to what they have already
said.
7
TIME FACTOR
We need to take into consideration how long it takes to think of something in another language, process it
and verbalize it – when learning new
languages, the words will never just
flow out of their mouths. Mistakes will
be made and confidence will be low
therefore it is absolutely essential for
teachers to remember that learning
a new language is a developmental
process. There are so many different
factors involved when it comes to ac-
14
quiring a new language and things of
course, need to be put into perspective. Sadly, the ESL teacher sometimes lacks patience. Do not just jump
in and finish the sentence for them
and do not immediately redirect the
question to another student – through
this you will just give them more inhibitions and insecurities when it comes
to speaking English. Time is what
they need and tell them this. Use the
phrases “take your time” or “I’ll give
you a moment to think about it.” Such
phrases will take the pressure off and
they will be able to think more clearly.
TO CONCLUDE, SPEAKING IS THE
MOST DIFFICULT SKILL TO MASTER
AND MANY TEACHERS ARE UNDER
FALSE IMPRESSIONS WHEN IT
COMES TO SPEAKING IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM.
They believe that simply by observing and listening to their teacher the
students will be able to speak – this
could not be further from the truth.
Speaking takes more practice and it
does require a lot more confidence as
it involves real-time comprehension
and reaction. A lot of time needs to be
spent on speaking and when working with lower levels or shier students
more patience is needed to give them
that little positive push in the right direction.
How To Energize Your Bored
Students With This Great Game
JEOPARDY IS A PERFECT ESL CLASSROOM ACTIVITY FOR ANY LEVEL,
ANY SIZE OF GROUP, AND ANY
TOPIC AREA.
It’s extremely adaptable and can be
used for almost limitless purposes:
• Review of the day’s material, or
before a test
• Check understanding of key concepts and terms
• Diagnostic tests, to help draw up
a syllabus or decide the students’
level
• Quizzing the students’ general
knowledge, either to discover
weak areas, or just for fun
• Build team spirit and an atmosphere of healthy competition
In adapting this much-loved institution to the ESL classroom, I’ve found
some ways to keep it simple while
retaining its ever-so-useful flexibility.
I generally omit the cryptic word-play
aspects, sticking to easily comprehended categories. I also do without
the tradition of beginning the answer
with ‘What is...’, preferring to vary between requiring short, factual answers
and longer, explanatory responses.
Double Jeopardy comes only at a
pre-determined time (down to the exact minute), chosen at random by the
teacher at the beginning of the game,
and kept as a surprise. My students
have absolutely loved it, and I’m sure
this simple but thoroughly enjoyable
game could find a place in virtually
any class.
The teamwork aspect is something
I’ve come to emphasize. Students are
asked, at the outset, to discover their
teammates’ strongest and weakest
topic areas (be it business, geography,
history, culture, or sport). Answers
must then be reached by consensus,
after a period of quiet, hurried discussion, so that no single student dominates proceedings. Between rounds
of the regular game, additional rounds
add to this discursive aspect, requiring students to choose a numerical
answer: they must persuade, reject,
agree and modify opinions in a fastpaced exchange of language.
SETUP PROCEDURE
•
With classes of up to 8-9 students, I
normally organize two teams, while
larger classes might have three. More
teams than this could slow down the
game too much, resulting in frustrations. The teams could be selected in
many ways, but here are some favorites:
• Assign each student a number (1,
2 or 3) or a letter (A, B or C)
• Give the teams a name, and assign students this way: “Peng?
You’re in Ravenclaw. Martina?
Please join Gryffindor”, etc. Sports
teams, tree species, names of
mountains, almost anything can
be used.
• Select a team captain to pick
students one by one to join their
team. Be aware that the students
last to be picked might take this
personally, just like we all did in
high school!
• Boys versus Girls, provided that it
wouldn’t cause unhelpful levels of
class division!
• I don’t recommend organizing
mixed-nationality ESL classes
into national teams, or continent
teams. Apart from the obvious
danger of encouraging nationalistic fervor (a China versus Japan
setup, for example, could have
dire consequences for class harmony!) I’ve found that the most
successful teams include people
from a variety of backgrounds.
•
INTRODUCTORY
ROUND
•
Before the game proper begins, consider a first round which encourages
teamwork and communication. I’ve
found success in asking the students
to guess a numerical answer, and
then awarding $500 to the closest response. This could also be the format
of alternative rounds, played between
the main rounds. Good questions
might include:
• What’s the height of the world’s
tallest mountain? (8848m – Mt.
Everest)
How many national neighbors
does China have? (14 – don’t forget Bhutan!)
How long was the longest ever
stay in space? (437 days, Valeri
Polyakov from Russia)
How many countries have English
as their official language? (60)
•
POSSIBLE SUBJECT
AREAS
I’ve simply been writing three topics
on the board, and then $200, $400
and $600 in a column beneath each
one. I explain that greater rewards
mean more challenging questions.
Here are some of the topic areas I
have found most useful to include,
based both on my students’ abilities
and the gaps I’ve found in their knowledge: remember that Jeopardy can
inform as well as review.
1
•
•
•
•
VOCABULARY
Ask for three (or five, or ten)
synonyms for a given word. Try:
nice, beautiful, old, big, small.
Similarly, ask for antonyms, e,g.
“Give me five opposites of ‘placid’”.
Ask for a definition of a recentlylearned word, or one which the
students might be able to puzzle
out, based on other words they
know. “Remember how a ‘psycho’
is a crazy person? What work
do you think a ‘psychotherapist’
does?”
Provide a definition and ask which
word this relates to, e.g. “How do
we call a building where you can
borrow books?” or “What word do
we use for the Jewish house of
worship?”
Ask for a set of adjectives to describe a given object, person or
place, given in ascending order
of strength (e.g. good – awesome
– tremendous – unimprovable),
or register (cute – pretty – attractive – elegant), or level, basic to
advanced (big – huge – gigantic
– titanic - monstrous).
15
2
•
•
•
•
•
•
GRAMMAR
Begin a sentence using a recently-learned structure, and ask
the students to complete it, e.g. “If
I hadn’t bought the lottery ticket...”
Provide a sentence and ask which
tense is being used. “’Sheila has
been complaining about our noisy
neighbors for six months’. Which
tense am I using, team B?”
Ask for a sentence using two
modal verbs, perhaps one in the
past and the other in the present.
Ask for an explanation of why a
particular tense is used, e.g. “Why
might I use the future perfect?”,
or, “In what situation might someone use the past continuous with
‘when’?”
Ask for a sentence which uses
a particular tense, e.g. “I’d like
a question in the future simple,
please,” or, “Let me have a past
perfect continuous passive.”
Ask for combinations of grammar
points in one newly-composed
sentence, e.g. “Let us hear a sentence which includes two apostrophes, a modal verb and finishes
with a tag question.”
These questions are often really very
challenging, and require the students
to think about grammar in an unusual
way: explaining and justifying its use,
rather than simply creating accurate
examples or (at a lower level) completing controlled, gap-fill type exercises. Verbalizing these contexts has
genuinely helped my students to see
the rationale for using sophisticated
grammar.
3
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ask for a brief biography of a famous business person
Ask in which country a multinational has its headquarters
Ask for the meanings of acronyms
(WTO, NAFTA, AIG, SEC)
Ask for brief descriptions of important pieces of business-related
legislation
Ask for marketing tag-lines or celebrities who endorse a particular
product
Ask which currencies are used in
some given countries
4
•
•
16
BUSINESS
GEOGRAPHY
Ask about the names of rivers
which flow through given cities
Ask in which city certain land-
marks might be found
Ask which languages one might
hear on a journey from A to B (e.g.
along the Mediterranean coast
from Haifa to Gibraltar)
Ask which states you might drive
through to travel from one US city
to another
Ask for three (or five, or ten) countries in a given continent
•
•
•
5
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ask when a certain event happened (perhaps accepting answers plus or minus a few years)
Ask how long a certain figure was
president, or monarch
Ask for the names of five twentieth century US presidents
Ask which products a certain
country became famous for trading during a given century
Ask when a certain law was
passed, and give bonus money
for extra detail
Ask for a short biography of a historical figure
6
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
CULTURE
Ask for the name of the director, or actors, involved in a given
movie
Ask for the author of a famous
book, or ask which books a certain author wrote
Ask the students to name three
albums by a famous band
Ask where a certain museum is
located, and what it’s famous for
Sing a famous TV theme tune and
ask which show it’s from
Show a picture of a celebrity
and ask for their most important
achievements
7
•
HISTORY
SCIENCE
Ask for the names of the planets
of the solar system (in order, perhaps including some moons)
Ask which chemical element is
represented by some given symbols (O, He, W, etc)
Ask who invented the steam engine, the practical electric light
bulb, the TV, etc
Ask from which country certain
inventions emanated (gunpowder
from China, etc)
Ask students to explain a natural phenomenon: why is the sky
blue? Why are there longest and
shortest days of the year? Why do
we build expensive particle accelerators?
THE SKY IS THE LIMIT.
I play this version of Jeopardy at least
once a week, and it never fails to engender team spirit and enthusiasm,
as well as reviewing important material and plugging some gaps in the
students’ general knowledge. I hope
you’ll give it a try!
Speak Speak Speak: 3 More Activities To Motivate Students to Speak
ONE OF THE GREATEST CHALLENGES
WE FACE AS EFL TEACHERS IS GETTING
OUR STUDENTS TO ACTUALLY USE THE
LANGUAGE IN CLASS.
Many students are very shy about using
English, worried about their grammar, accent, or many other mistakes. Because
fluency is so important for daily communication in any language, we as teachers
need to find some way to get them talking. Reward systems and tying class attitude and behaviour scores to participation certainly helps address this problem,
but forced participation is never as productive as when participation voluntary.
To this end, it is worth the teacher’s time
to use speaking activities that get the students excited and participating for that
reason instead of coercion.
Games are one of the best ways to accomplish voluntary participation, even
among the lower level and shy students.
Adding an element of competition, especially on an individual basis, encourages
students to try their best and helps them
lose their inhibitions around speaking
English in front of their peers. So here are
three tried and tested speaking games
that have proven to be effective and a ton
of fun.
GET YOUR STUDENTS
TALKING
IN NO TIME USING
THESE ACTIVITIES
1
MATCHING ACTIVITY
This activity only really works for
topics in which there are specific answers
for specific questions or specific responses to certain situations. Some preparation is required on the part of the teacher.
Create a set of question/situations and
the correct answers/responses. For a
class of 30 it’s best to have 15 of each.
Print four or five sets of these (more for
advanced classes) and cut them up so
that each question, situation, answer, or
response is on its own small slip of paper. Be sure that you keep them in sets.
In class, hand out one set of answers
and one set of questions. Students then
circulate and try to find the counterpart
to their card. When they do, they find a
teacher and read out the question and response as a dialogue. If they are correct
the teacher marks each of their slips (the
students keep the completed slips) and
hands them two new slips from the next
set of questions and answers. Students
then go and try to find a match for their
new slips. Mark the slips to make sure
students do not try to use the same slip
to match with several different people.
The marks also serve as points. Continue this process for either a set time limit
or until all of the slips have been handed
out. When the activity is over the student
with the most marked slips is the winner.
For higher level classes, stipulate that all
communication when trying to find their
partner must be done in English.
2
PYRAMID GAME
This game requires very little preparation on the teacher’s part. All that is
really needed is four increasingly complicated dialogue pieces. To help with student clarity, I either draw a pyramid on
the board, or have one on a presentation
slide. Divide it into four levels. Each level
is associated with a two or four line piece
of target language that the students have
learned in the unit. From the bottom to
the top they should be easiest to hardest. All students start at the bottom and
must work their way up. They do this by
finding another student on their level and
going through the dialogue together. If
one student can’t complete their part of
the dialogue they remain on that level
and their opponent advances to the next
level. If they both successfully complete
their half of the dialogue, they play rock,
paper, scissors to decide who advances.
Once they have completed all four levels , they come and find the teacher. The
teacher can ask them any question from
the entire unit, or preceding units for high
level classes. If the student gets it correct
they play rock, paper, scissors against
the teacher. If the student wins they are
a winner. If they lose they go back to the
bottom level. Continue the game until
you reach a pre-set number of winners.
Some versions of this game associate
each level with an animal or action. The
students who are on that level must act
like the animal so they can locate one another. To extend the amount of time this
game takes, the loser of each battle can
go down a level. Also, if a student playing
rock, paper, scissors against the teacher
loses, the entire class goes back to level
one. This game can be very difficult to
monitor, as the students are all over the
classroom and all talking at once. One
method to help with this is to have the
students police themselves. Tell them
that if they see pairs playing rock, paper,
scissors without first completing the dialogue they can tell you and you move the
students down a level and require them
to complete a dialogue set in front of you
to advance. Also, emphasise that if one
person cannot complete the dialogue
then the other person advances without
any need to go through the rock, paper,
scissors process. Students seem to appreciate the element of luck that rock, paper, scissors introduces into this activity.
3
SENTENCE ELIMINATION
GAME
This game is one that works especially
well for low level classes as it does not
require using English freely. The teacher
must prepare a presentation with one
sentence on each slide. I usually create a
conversation based on the topic and using the dialogue the students have most
recently learned. Ideally, use relatively
short sentences. If you can get several
one or two word responses in there it
keeps the students on their toes. To make
things more interesting you can add several other picture slides between the sentence slides. One is simple an ‘out’ slide.
If a student gets that slide on their turn
they are out. One is a slide that does not
affect the student that gets it but the one
who is next. If that student is still in the
game, then they are out. If they were already out then they are in. The final kind
is a random action (make kids jump and
say something or whatever). They must
do it within five seconds or they are out.
Whatever you do, you will need at least
one slide per student with a few extras.
Once in class, have all students stand
up. Set an order among them. When
each student’s turn comes they have the
choice of reading one or two words from
the sentence on the screen. Not more or
less. Whoever is forced to read the last
word of the sentence is out. Depending
on what other slides you have included,
there is also a sense of randomness
whenever you change the slide. Keep
going until there is only one student still
standing. They are the winner.
I HAVE FOUND THESE GAMES ARE
GREAT WAYS TO GET THE STUDENTS
SPEAKING FOR THE LAST HALF OF
CLASS. I usually tell them there will be a
game if they are well behaved and participate and that increases the speaking level
even before the game comes out.
17
Use It Or Lose It: 8 Awesome
Activities To Encourage Initiative
MANAGING STUDENT PARTICIPATION IS A BIG DEAL IN THE ESL
CLASSROOM, AND MAXIMIZING IT
IS NO EASY TASK.
Many of our ESL students are even
reluctant to participate. They are perfectly content with answering yes or
no and just sitting there quietly. But
let’s get real, they are not going to
learn like that, at least not to use the
language. Using the target language
as much as possible is the key to
learning any language. The activities
we build into our lessons fit our lesson topics and goals. The objective of
these activities is for students to learn
to use the language and to interact in
ways that will help them in real life. It
is important to include a good variety
of activities to suit the situations your
students will be in outside the classroom. These activities have to focus
on the transactional use of the language, where the goal is to make social connections. No matter how hard
your students work, they are not going to do it on their own. Put the ball
in their court and make them sweat a
little. Do you want to know how? Take
a look at these great student initiative
activities.
PRACTICE
INTERACTIONS
Practicing interactions is an all time
favorite activity when you want your
students to become familiar with real
life social exchanges. Interacting with
others is a natural part of social life
and because of that, they are a natural
choice when you want your ESL students to practice absolutely anything
from vocabulary to language functions to structures. There are different
types of interactive activities you can
use in your lessons. Let’s take a look
at a few.
1
ROLE PLAYS
Role plays give students opportunities to communicate within near-to
authentic situations. They can take a
considerable amount of class time,
so it is important to plan ahead and
also to make sure your students know
18
what they need to do. In role plays
the situations need to be set up by
the teacher, but it is the students who
need to make all the choices. Some
examples are:
• Setting up meetings
• Making travel arrangements
• Talking about oneself in a social
event
• Ordering meals.
• Giving instructions. Etc
2
BASIC EXCHANGES
Short exchanges are also popular and much more common. They
usually require a lot less time but
these exchanges don’t give students
much freedom since it is the teacher
who tells students what to say. These
are a good choice when you want your
students to practice language functions. Look at the following example.
A: Hi, how are you. I’m Mike.
B: Hi Mike, I’m Maria.
In this example they are practicing
greetings but the list goes on and on.
MAKE USE OF
DESCRIPTIONS
Descriptions are activities without
any kind of interaction. Here students
are given instructions to talk about or
describe something. The objective is
for them to go over specific language
goals already covered. Of course
preparation is needed in advance, no
matter what the student’s level is. If
the students are beginners, a model
could be provided by the teacher. If
students are in higher levels, you can
just say: “talk to me about this situation/ the picture in your book”. Let’s
take a look at some great activities.
3
DESCRIBING THINGS
The student can describe objects in the classroom or in their office
while others guess what those objects
are.
4
DESCRIBING SEQUENCES
You provide picture sequences
of a situation. There are two options
here. They can simply talk about the
sequences frame by frame to describe the situation or you can cut out
the frames and have them put them
in order first and describe them later.
5
USING QUESTIONS
Ask them questions to lead
them into a description. For instance:
What do you do in the morning? What
did you do in your last vacation? What
would you do if you were asked to relocate?
6
DESCRIBING ARTICLES
Cut out headlines from the paper. They need to be related to the
topic you are working on, of course.
Give each student a headline and ask
them to tell you what they think that
article is about.
APPLY QUESTIONS
We have already cover this topic in
other articles but let’s go over some
things again. Questions are of utmost
importance for students. In real life
they will also need to ask questions,
not only answer them. Through questions ESL students understand how
auxiliaries work and how to use them.
There are many different types of activities you can use to practice questions. Let’s take a look at some.
7
ASKING ABOUT PICTURES
Show your students a picture
and have them ask you or other students questions about it.
8
ASKING CLASSMATES
Point to one of the students and
say, “Diego had party last week. Ask
him about it”. Have the other students
ask “Diego” about the party.
DON’T LET YOUR STUDENTS GET
LAZY.
Combine different types of activities
and provide meaningful contexts for
each. Remind them that hard work
pays off.
35 Print And Go Discussion
Starters: The Secret Weapon
QUICK! YOU HAVE NO TIME TO
PREPARE BUT NEED TO FILL A FEW
MINUTES IN CLASS… YOU WANT
YOUR STUDENTS TO GET SOME
SPEAKING PRACTICE IN, BUT YOU
JUST DON’T KNOW WHERE TO
START…
You need something to warm up your
class before you dig deep in today’s
lesson plans... What do you do? With
these print and go discussion starters
for your ESL students, none of these
situations will stress you out. You will
always be ready to get your students
talking, no preparation required. Just
print and go.
FAMILY AND FRIENDS
1
SIBLINGS
Do you have brothers and sisters? Describe one of them. Are you
an only child? What did it feel like having no brothers and sisters? Do you
think it’s better to have a large family
or a small one? Why? Tell your partner about your ideal future family.
2
PARENTS
What does it take to be a good
mother or father? What do you appreciate most about your parents? What
do you wish was different about your
parents? What is one way you want to
be like them when you have children?
3
FAMILY TIME
Some families have a regular
time to be together such as family
game night. What do you like to do
with your family? How do you spend
time together? What is something you
would like to do with your family but
have not done up until this point?
4
BEST FRIENDS
Who is your best friend? How
did you meet? Why is that person important in your life?
5
ANIMALS
Do you own a pet? Tell your
partner about him or her. What type of
pet do you want to own in the future?
Why? What type of pet do you never
want to own? Why not?
DAY IN AND DAY OUT
6
A REASON TO LEARN
Why are you studying English?
What brought you to this program?
What do you want to do with English
when you have finished school?
7
DAILY HABITS
What are some things you do
every day? What if you couldn’t do
them? Tell your partner how your life
would be different.
8
MORNING AND NIGHT
Are you a morning person or
a night person? How do you know?
What happens if you have to be
somewhere or do something during
the time you prefer to sleep? Tell your
partner about it.
9
MY FAVORITE MEAL
What do you like to eat? Why?
Tell your partner about your perfect
meal. What does it include? Who has
prepared it? Who will eat it with you?
10
I HAVE TO HAVE…
Think of something you
use every day. Describe it to your
partner, but do not tell him what it is.
After you have described it, have your
partner guess what the object is.
HOBBIES AND FREE
TIME
11
A DAY OFF
What is your favorite thing
to do on a Saturday or a day off from
school or work? Describe your favor-
ite past time. How does someone get
started with that hobby?
12
CAMPING
Have you ever been camping? What was it like? If you have never been camping, what do you think
it is like? Do you want to go? Why or
why not? What would you be sure to
bring with you on a camping trip?
13
YOU’RE A PRO
What do you know about
that others might not? What can you
tell others about that topic? What do
they need to know?
14
EXPERT INSTRUCTION
Everyone is an expert at
something. Tell your partner how to do
something that you are an expert at.
15
FEELING FINE
What makes you happy?
Why? How do you include that thing
in your life?
GETTING PERSONAL
16
SEE ME AFTER CLASS
What do you want to do
when you are finished with your
schooling? How will learning English
help you in those plans?
17
PRIZED POSSESSIONS
What is the most valuable
thing you own? Is it valuable because
of its monetary worth or because of
what it means to you? Tell your partner about that object and why it is so
valuable.
18
ACCIDENTS HAPPEN
Have you ever been in an
accident? What was it like? If not, how
do you avoid getting into accidents?
What are the most important things
you can do to be safe?
19
19
MAKING FRIENDS
Do you like to meet new
people? Why or why not? How do you
get to know someone new? Are you
introvert or an extrovert? How do you
know?
20
DRESSING UP
What kinds of clothes do
you like to wear? Why? Tell your partner about your perfect outfit and what
you like to do when wearing it.
GETTING EMOTIONAL
21
I WAS FRIGHTENED
WHEN…
Think about a time when you were
scared. Tell your partner about that
experience. How does that experience influence who you are today?
22
I WAS ANGRY WHEN…
Think about a time when
you were angry. Tell your partner
about that experience. How does that
experience influence who you are today?
23
I WAS JEALOUS
WHEN…
Think about a time when you were
jealous. Tell your partner about that
experience. How does that experience influence who you are today?
24
I WAS EXCITED
WHEN…
Think about a time when you were excited. Tell your partner about that experience. How does that experience
influence who you are today?
25
I WAS SAD WHEN…
Think about a time when
you were sad. Tell your partner about
that experience. How does that experience influence who you are today?
REMEMBER THAT
26
BEAUTIFUL PLACES
What is the most beautiful
place you have ever been? Tell your
partner about it. Do you think you will
ever go back there?
20
27
INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE
Who is the person who
has had the most influence on you in
your life? Tell your partner about that
person. How have they helped make
you the person you are today?
28
THROUGH A CHILD’S
EYES
What do you remember about being a child? What is one of your best
memories? Share it with your partner.
What is one of your worst memories?
Share it with your partner.
29
GET MOVING
Have you ever had to move
from one home to another? What was
the experience like? Share everything
you remember about it with your partner.
30
GETTING AWAY
Have you ever taken a vacation? Where did you go? What did
you do? Do you think you will ever go
back there again? Why or why not?
IMAGINE THAT
Note these discussion starters are for
students who have studied conditionals.
31
A DESERTED ISLAND
If you were trapped on a
deserted island all alone, what is the
first thing you would do? What would
you want to have with you? What
would you miss most?
32
A BETTER WORLD
If you could change one
thing about the world, what would it
be? How would your change make
the world a better place?
33
DINNER GUESTS
If you could have dinner
with any person in the world, living or
dead, who would it be? Why would
you choose that person? Describe to
your partner what your dinner conversation would be like.
34
HINDSIGHT IS…
They say that hindsight is
20/20 meaning you always know what
is right or best after an event has happened. What is one thing you wish
you had done differently in your past?
How does hindsight make the experience easier to understand? How
would you behave differently now that
you know what you know?
35
REMEMBER WHEN…
Imagine you stumble into
a time machine and travel 100 years
into the future. The machine breaks,
and you cannot return to your own
time. What would you do? What do
you think the world would be like?
What would you miss most about your
own time?
YOU DID IT. YOU FILLED THE
UNPLANNED TIME.
You got your students talking. You got
them ready for today’s lesson. Now
on to something new tomorrow! After
all, you still have plenty of things to
talk about.
The Ideal ESL Role Play
In 5 Easy Steps
PICTURE THIS.
You just spent 40 minutes presenting and practicing a bunch of new vocabulary to your students. They seem
to have understood and can answer
questions using these new words. But,
how can you know for certain? At this
stage it would be important for them
to prove they are comfortable with this
new material, and the best way to do
this is with some type of activity. This
is where role plays come in handy
Why, you might ask? Take a look.
• They encourage thinking and creativity
• They allow students to develop
and practice new language and
behavioral skills.
• They can create the motivation
and involvement necessary for
real learning to occur.
OK, so we now know why they are
useful, but as we all know, anything
worth doing is worth doing well. We
need a good procedure for setting up
a role-play, after all we can’t just throw
a role card at our students and say:
“OK, you are Role Card A, and you
are Role Card B. Go!” A well set up
role play makes students feel safe and
facilitates the process. Take a look at
these awesome steps that can help
you set up your role play.
MAKE SURE YOU
FOLLOW THESE
5 STEPS TO
OUTSTANDING
ROLEPLAY
1
PREPARATION
Most activities in the ESL classroom require some type of warm up.
To prepare students, you can use illustrations, flashcards, photos, pictures and even graphs and charts in
the case of business students. The images you are using should be related
to the situation in the role play. Your
students describe what they see in
the pictures and then have a brief discussion. It is a good idea to review or
teach useful vocabulary, grammar and
phrases at this point, so that your students have all the necessary tools to
engage in an amazing fluency based
activity without trouble.
2
ENACTMENT 1
So, now it’s time for your students to act out the role play. To help
them, you need to create the scene
and assign the roles to each of the
students. Give them a few minutes to
gather their thoughts and plan ahead.
If the group is able to handle it, you
can even add some kind of ‘conflict’ or
‘complication’. Since students should
focus more on fluency at this moment,
it is advisable for teachers to take
notes on mistakes made by students.
These mistakes will be addressed later, during the feedback session but not
during the role play. Students should
not be interrupted for corrections during the enactment.
It is important to mention that role
plays can include more than two students. If it is a group course, you can
even involve the whole class. Those
types of role plays are actually much
more fun but remember to keep it organized. There are different ways in
which a class can participate together.
You can either create different roles for
each student in the same situation, or
while two students are interacting, the
teacher can instruct others to whisper
information to them or even to stop the
role play and ask another student to
take over one of the roles.
3
comfortable, you can have your students switch roles or if there were
more than two roles, reassign them
among the students. It is possible to
make other changes that might suit
their needs as well.
5
FEEDBACK 2 AND FOLLOW
UP
Once again, students analyze their
performance and the teacher adds
comments and necessary corrections. Now is a good time for follow up
work. Homework or some type of follow up activity is ideal here since it is a
great way to reinforce any loose ends
detected during enactments. These
activities can focus on specific areas
or if nothing specific needs to be addressed, it can be a general closing
exercise.
ROLE PLAYS ARE A GREAT WAY TO
GET YOUR STUDENTS TALKING.
By using the language they will be in
better shape to retain what they are
learning. Keep in mind we all learn by
doing. Use role plays in your classroom and prepare your students to go
out into the real world.
FEEDBACK 1
Keep in mind that any kind of
feedback should always be positive
and constructive. In order to encourage self-correction you can write incorrect phrases on the board and they
can reconsider their choices.
4
ENACTMENT 2
After reviewing and analyzing
what they have done during enactment 1, a second enactment is often a
great choice. That way students have
a second chance to officially change
the choices they made in the beginning. Also, since they will feel more
21
How To Create Your Own RolePlays: 4 Quick Tips
THE MOST REWARDING PART
OF LANGUAGE LEARNING, FOR
MANY STUDENTS, COMES AT THAT
MOMENT OF SPONTANEOUS, UNREHEARSED PRODUCTION.
They’ve learned the vocabulary and
the structures, and can pass the
tests, but now they find themselves
vociferously arguing a point, or taking
a key role in a dynamic discussion,
surprised at their own confidence and
fluency. The boost is tremendous: it
could literally change the course of
the student’s education, and lead to
exciting possibilities.
Role-play allows a class to debate a
sensitive or controversial point without the bruising emotional experience
of expressing a minority opinion or
putting their reputation on the line.
Rather than dealing with genuine and
weighty real-world issues, we can use
imagination and a convincing ‘manmade’ environment to emulate reality,
like in a movie or video game. Such
environments are infinitely flexible,
permitting customization and nuance
which respond to our students’ beliefs, provoke debate in an unthreatening format, and invite everyone to
participate equally.
There are no limits to how a role-play
might operate. The students might be
defending a policy, or trying to persuade their group to accept change. It
could be a life or death decision. Or it
could just be the advocating of a new
technology they think would sell well.
Perhaps they’re representing a badly
treated jungle tribe, or a maligned
CEO, reeling from the latest scandal.
They could take the role of a historical figure, or a contemporary leader,
or someone not yet born. Creating
these environments has been one of
the most enjoyable and productive
aspects of my ESL career.
Inventing your own role-plays is timeconsuming, and demands care and attention, but once created, you’ll have
a superb platform for genuine and
passionate student interaction. Students who might be shy of airing their
22
own views, and therefore not likely to
produce as much as we’d like, find
themselves in a safe place, and with
a role they can embody by actually
maximizing their production. Learners who are used to a single point of
view, or who are trained in black-andwhite thinking, can find themselves
challenged to embody the opposite
view, and to engage with the nuances
of those oh-so-important gray areas.
The role-play itself becomes a valuable, shared experience which aids
integration and unity within the class.
I really can’t recommend this enough:
try the steps below, and create your
own role-play.
•
CONSIDER YOUR CLASS
2
What interests them? What gets
them talking? Listen for issues which
come up repeatedly, or cause debate or disagreement. Tap into the
students’ hobbies and backgrounds,
the subjects they’re planning to study
at college, or topics raised in movies
they’ve recently seen.
SELECT A SKILLS AREA
Review what they already know and
focus on one or two skills which either
need review, or have yet to flourish.
Consider recent language points –
tenses, modals, conditionals, plurals,
comparisons, measure expressions,
modifiers, etc – and assess which of
these might both benefit from review
and might usefully be practiced in a
role-play environment. Here are some
possibilities, with ‘meta-questions’ to
help you choose a particular narrative
or role-play context:
TRY THESE 4
METHODS FOR
CREATING SUPER
ENGAGING
ROLE-PLAYS
1
•
•
•
GROUP DECISION MAKING
Which policy should we choose?
Which person should we hire?
Which of these choices is the
most efficient / risky / popular /
profitable?
How can we make sure everyone
benefits from this policy?
What regulations are needed to
keep this community safe?
Which version of this idea is the
best / most appropriate / least
dangerous?
•
•
Grammar points might include:
• Comparatives: “This solution to
this crisis is better than the UN
idea, because...”
• Language for agreement and disagreement: “How can you support the new fishing law, when...”
Modifiers and adjectives: “This proposal is outstanding, but this one is
absolutely terrible.”
•
•
•
•
•
NEGOTIATION:
How can we solve this problem
together?
How can we share these resources most equitably?
How can we develop trust between our two groups?
How should we appropriately
compensate these people?
How should this group of visitors
spend their time in the best way?
Grammar points will include:
• Agreement and disagreement:
“That may look like a good solution, but I think...”
• Requesting and persuading: “This
proposal is not well balanced, but
would you consider...”
• Prioritizing and balancing: “That’s
significant, but it is far more important that we address...
3
•
•
•
•
•
DESIGN:
Which kind of marketing would
appeal to this target group?
What style of syllabus is appropriate for these students?
How should we spend time on
this outing?
How should we organize this exhibition?
Which building style is the most
environmentally friendly?
Grammar points might include:
•
•
•
Adjectives and metaphors: “If it’s
a rounder shape it might seem
more friendly...”
Objections and persuasion: “I’m
not sure that’ll get the message
across, but what about...”
Comparatives: “That seems a
more efficient way than the first
one we thought of...”
4
I hope that this helps you to try creating some of your own role-plays, and
to enjoyably guiding your students to
greater production and confidence!
REPRESENTING
A CHARACTER:
Depending on the role-play context,
students could take a character and
express their point of view. Examples
could include:
• A Business Role-play: Manager,
employee, accountant, consultant, safety officer, PR specialist
• A Technology Role-play: Designer, sales director, consumer consultant, researcher
• A Politics/Government Role-play:
President, cabinet member, activist, journalist, cleric, scientist
• A Crisis Management Role-play:
Local mayor, police chief, victim,
regulator, lawyer
EXAMPLES:
One of my favorite role-play tasks was
to create four fictional cities, each with
different characteristics, and have the
students decide which one would
be most suitable to hold an Olympic
Games. One had a crime problem,
another had a substandard transport
network, another had problems with
protestors from a local ethnic group,
etc. Once the situation was analyzed,
groups represented each city in a bid
to persuade the IOC (their teacher)
to vote for them, and to discredit the
other cities.
Another favorite was a complex negotiation between two countries who
are on the brink of war. Long-term
mistrust and continual skirmishing
is (hopefully!) put aside while issues
such as sharing resources, allowing
access to a holy site, forming a nonaggression treaty and arranging a
technology exchange are discussed.
The final package was a nuanced mix
of give and take, spiced up by the
two groups having deliberately lied to
each other on crucial points. It never
fails to arouse passions and lead to
huge amounts of language production.
NOW TRY IT YOURSELF!
23
5 Ways to Make Talking about
Me about Everyone
HARVARD RESEARCH SHOWS THAT
OUR BRAINS ARE MORE ACTIVE
WHEN WE TALK ABOUT OURSELVES.
Go around in a circle and see who can
remember the most correct answers.
He/she gets a prize.
Hence it is probably the most engaging way to have students practice conversation. We obviously do it naturally
when we are teaching one-on-one,
but it can be boring to listen to others
talk about themselves, and students
often lose interest when one-on-one
conversation is employed in a group
conversation class. So how can we
make “talking about me” into “talking
about you” to scratch that brain itch
while involving everyone? Here are
five strategies.
3
DISCOVER AWESOME
WAYS OF ENGAGING
YOUR STUDENTS
IN CONVERSATION
The groups share the results with the
class: everyone will have to speak.
1
USE ARTICLES ABOUT
GENERAL HUMAN NATURE
Find brief research articles online
about human nature. Examples include a study scientists performed
about how we sleep more in winter, or
how women prefer talking in groups
and men on-one-one.
Hand out five questions about themselves and how they relate to the article designed on a slide or handout
beforehand. Read the article. Have
them write their answers to the questions first, and then go around in a
circle and discuss. For a big class, divide them into groups of two or three.
2
MAKE IT A GAME
WITH STAKES
Design a memory game where they
have to remember what each person
says in response to a question. For
beginners, use basic questions like
favorite color or ice cream flavor. For
more advanced students, you can ask
about an experience in their youth or
something more complex.
Students write down their answer and
one by one tell the class.
24
SET UP
AN INTERVIEW SESSION
Bring a list of questions for students
about each other, i.e. personal questions about family, work, what they
like to do on the weekend, whatever
you are studying or want to practice!
Hand it out to each student.
Students use the sheets to interview
each other in small groups or pairs.
4
GIVE A “FIX A PROBLEM”
SCENARIO
Create a scenario where you ask
students to solve a problem that relates to their lives or their town/country (something you know is important
to them). For example, ask them, “If
you could add two new stores to your
town, what would they be and why?”
Have them write down the answers in
a few minutes.
Separate them into groups of two and
make them discuss their answers and
pick one from each list. They will have
to reason out their answers together
and come to consensus.
Have the pairs share with the larger
group discussing why they chose their
two stores from four options.
5
TAKE POLLS/SURVEYS
Design a list of opinion polling
questions about a topic, like opinions
about climate change, or opinions
about movies. For example, if you use
climate change, ask 1) Do you notice
warming in your country? 2) Are polar bears really necessary to biodiversity?, etc.
Record how many say yes and how
many say no to each question.
Discuss the group consensus/average opinion and encourage debate!
If the same two students are opinion
heavy, switch to another question or
call on quieter students.
THESE ARE JUST FIVE TOOLS TO
ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO THINK
AND TALK ABOUT THEMSELVES
WHILE APPLYING THAT THINKING IN THE CONTEXT OF A LARGER
GROUP TO KEEP YOUR CONVERSATION FLOWING AND TO ENSURE
THAT EVERYONE STAYS INVOLVED.
After all, talking about “me” is only interesting if there is a “you” to listen.
Sometimes we need to structure responses to make that reality clear!
5 Activities To Get The Conversation Started With Your Students
MAKING SMALL TALK IS MORE THAN
JUST GETTING TO KNOW SOMEONE
NEW. IT IS AN EXPECTED PART OF
SOCIAL BEHAVIOR. MAKING SMALL
TALK ISN’T ALWAYS EASY, THOUGH,
ESPECIALLY FOR ESL STUDENTS.
Speakers must meet certain expectations and must talk about appropriate
subjects. These subjects are different
from one culture to another, so small talk,
which may once have come naturally,
must now be intentional. These activities
will give your students a chance to practice what to say when they’re face to face
with someone new and want to get the
conversation started.
TRY THESE 5 SMALL
TALK ACTIVITIES TO GET
THE CONVERSATION
STARTED
WITH YOUR STUDENTS
1
TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER
Talking about the weather is one
of the simplest ways to make chitchat or
small talk with someone you don’t know
very well. Depending on the fluency level
of your students, they may already be
comfortable talking about the weather or
they may need a more extensive review
before they can jump right in to small
talk. Once your students are weather
knowledgeable, though, there are several ways to have a conversation about
weather. A speaker might ask his companion what they think about the weather
and then respond to what that persons
says. The speaker might also make their
own observations about the weather and
then let his companion comment on his
thoughts. Put students in pairs to practice both strategies of weather chit chat.
Make sure each person has a chance to
start a conversation both ways during the
activity.
2
ASKING
PERSONAL QUESTIONS
Asking personal questions is a great
way to make chitchat, but the questions
should never be too personal. To help
your students see the difference, brainstorm a list of personal questions you
might ask someone you have just met. As
you brainstorm, sort these questions into
two columns – mildly personal questions
and highly personal questions (those that
might make the speaker very emotional).
As you brainstorm and sort, help your
students see how the highly personal
questions might make someone uncomfortable, especially with someone they
have just met. Be sure to point out that,
to English speakers, politics, age, weight,
and income are all highly personal topics
and should not be discussed while making chitchat. Encourage your students to
use the mildly personal questions to start
a conversation with someone new before
the next class. Then discuss how the real
life small talk went.
3
CURRENT EVENTS
Current events are another great
topic for casual conversation. Did you
hear about... Did you see... What do you
think about... are all great ways to introduce current events in a casual conversation. Have your students work with a
partner to write 10 questions starting with
one of these or another similar phrases
that introduce current events into a conversation. Then, combine pairs to make
groups of four and have the groups use
the questions they wrote to make small
talk with their new group members.
4
SOMETHING IN COMMON
Another strategy for small talk and
chitchat is to find something in common with a person you have just met.
This may be more of a challenge for
ESL students because they cannot rely
on preplanned questions like they may
be able to in other small talk strategies.
Still, once students are comfortable talking about their own interests, they may
be able to talk about those interests with
an English speaker. Start by having students write down between five and ten of
their interests. These might be a certain
type of music, a hobby, something they
collect, something they like to do, any interest that another person might share is
good. They should be able to talk about
that topic when making small talk with
another person, but only if that person is
also interested in the topic. To find common ground with someone else, your students can ask questions like these: What
do you do in your free time? What kind of
music do you like? Did you do anything
interesting this weekend? As a class
brainstorm a list of other questions your
students could ask someone else to learn
about their interests and hobbies.
Once you have your questions, position your students in two lines facing
one another (think speed dating style) to
practice finding common interests. Tell
students they will have two minutes to
find something in common with the person sitting across from them. After two
minutes, you will call time and everyone
will shift one seat to their right. (The last
person on each row will move to the first
seat at the other end.) Give your students
two minute intervals to talk to their classmates. Keep timing them until everyone
is once again facing their original partner.
After the activity, discuss with your class
how effective it was. Were your students
able to find common interests during their
conversations? If possible, invite a native
English speaking class to your classroom
and repeat the activity with them.
5
GO SPORTS!
For English speakers, sports is another go to topic for chitchat and small
talk. People who choose to talk about
sports, though, must have some knowledge of the topic to hold an intelligent
conversation. What does your class already know about sports in your area?
Can they name the professional teams?
Do they know what sports are most popular in your area of the country? Take some
time as a class to discuss local sports
and regional interests. Is your town a
baseball town? A football city? A hockey
town? Are the people of your area basketball fans? Is there something else that
excites sports fans near you? Once you
have all the teams and interests written
down, divide your class into groups – one
for each sport – to give an informational
presentation on the sport and the team.
Presentations should include information about the team and the basic rules of
the sport. If possible, have groups show
a video clip from their sport to give your
class a point of reference.
MAKING SMALL TALK IN A FOREIGN
LANGUAGE CAN BE INTIMIDATING, BUT
LESS SO WHEN YOU HAVE THE PROPER
TOOLS FOR THE JOB.
These activities will give your students
the knowledge and experience they
need, along with a few handy phrases,
to make conversation with anyone off the
street. Who knows? They just might find
a friend in the bargain!
25
It’s Not a Problem: 4 Out of the
Ordinary Advice Giving Activities
MODAL VERBS MAKE FREQUENT
APPEARANCES IN ESL CLASSROOMS,
AND ONE OF THE MOST COMMON
USES FOR MODALS IN ENGLISH IS
GIVING ADVICE.
Advice giving can be straightforward.
Someone has a problem and here
is how they can fix it, but sometimes
straightforward is a bit predictable. If
you are looking for some out of the ordinary ways to practice giving advice
with your students (and using modal
verbs), try one of the following activities.
PRACTICE ADVICE
GIVING IN A NEW WAY
1
HOT ADVICE
Sit your students in a circle for
this advice giving version of hot potato. In this game, you will announce
to your students a situation for which
someone might need advice. (You may
use these or similar situations: I had a
car accident. My boyfriend broke up
with me. I didn’t study for today’s test.
I was mugged. I lost my wallet.) Each
round, you will also designate an advice giving starter. (Choose one of the
following: You should..., You could...,
You might want to..., My advice is..., If
I were you, I would..., I might try..., If I
was in your place, I would...) The first
person in the circle will use the designated advice phrase to offer a piece of
advice. Then, the person sitting to his
left will offer a different piece of advice
for the same situation. Play continues
around the circle until someone cannot think of a new or different piece of
advice. That person is then out, and
you move on to the next round. For this
round, give a different situation and assign a different advice giving phrase.
Again, the first person who cannot
think of a unique piece of advice is out.
The rounds continue in the same manner until only one person is left in the
circle.
2
WHAT’S MY PROBLEM?
In this pair work activity, students
will try and guess a problem based
26
on the advice they receive. One person thinks of a problem that his partner might have. It should be a realistic problem that an ESL student could
face. (Avoid problems like a giant gorilla carries you to the top of the Empire
State Building.) That person then gives
one piece of advice for that problem to
his partner. He can use any modal verb
he feels is appropriate. The second
student should then try and guess what
problem she supposedly has. If she
does not guess the problem correctly,
the first student gives another piece
of advice. The second guesses at the
problem again. Students continue in
that pattern until the second student
guesses her supposed problem. Then,
students switch roles and play again.
3
COMPARING COUNCIL
GAME
Who in your class is the best at giving
advice? Your students will find out in this
advice giving game modeled after Apples to Apples. As a class, brainstorm
as many possible problems a person
might have that you can. Depending on
your class, you may want to limit the
time you spend on this part of the game
or just let it go until the class runs out of
ideas. During the brainstorming, whenever a student suggests a problem and
it sounds good to you and the class,
have that person write the problem on
a blank index card. Once you have a
list of at least 30 problems and cards
for each one, it’s time to think about
solutions to the problems. Have students work in groups of three to come
up with advice they might give for the
brainstormed problems. Each problem
will need five different pieces of advice.
Again, students should write these on
blank index cards. You should divide
the thirty problems among the groups
in your class. When all the advice has
been written down, you should have
150 index cards with possible advice.
Now the game is ready to play. Shuffle all the problem cards together, and
shuffle all the advice cards together in
two separate piles. Play the game in
groups of around ten students. Start by
dealing five advice cards to each stu-
dent. Then have one student choose a
problem card from the top of the deck.
That student reads the problem to the
other players. Those players must
then choose what they think the best
advice card they hold in their hand for
the problematic situation. They should
put these cards face down on the table.
The person who read the problem gathers the face down advice cards, gives
them a quick shuffle, and lays them
face up on the table reading each one
as she lays it down. She then chooses
the card that she thinks has the best
advice. Whoever laid that card down
gets a point, and all the other cards
are removed from the table. The next
person in the circle chooses a problem
card and this round plays the same as
the first. Play continues until one person has five points and wins the game
along with the title of best advice giver
in the class.
4
PROBLEM AND ADVICE
BINGO
Bingo is one of my favorite games to
play in the ESL classroom. It challenges students to listen carefully and
make connections between language
and pictures, numbers, or whatever is
on the bingo card in front of them. In
this version, students will match problems with advice to score a five in a row
win. If you created the index cards for
the Comparing Council Game, you can
use them again in this activity. Start
by giving each student a blank bingo
board and asking him to write a piece
of advice in each open square. If possible, the advice should be somewhat
general: it might apply to more than
one situation. (Useful advice might be
you should talk to the person about it,
you could try and earn some money, or
you had better get in shape.) Students
should write their advice in full sentences using modal verbs. Once they
have finished, it’s time to play bingo.
Using the problem cards your class already created, choose one problem at
a time and read it to your class. Students should scan the advice on their
bingo card to see if any of it would apply to the problematic situation. If so,
she should mark that space on her
card and write an advice giving sentence on a separate piece of paper. (If
you have a car accident, you should
call the police.) Continue drawing one
problem card at a time and giving students a chance to write sentences using the advice on their bingo boards.
When someone gets five in a row, she
calls bingo. She must then read her
sentences to the class. If they agree
that she has given good advice, she
wins. If the class thinks some of her
advice is too farfetched, she removes
that marker from her card and play
resumes until someone has five in a
row.
IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR SOME
UNUSUAL ACTIVITIES FOR PRACTICING ADVICE GIVING WITH YOUR
STUDENTS, THESE GAMES MIGHT BE
JUST WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR.
TRY ONE (OR MORE THAN ONE) AND
SEE WHO IN YOUR CLASS HAS THE
BEST ADVICE TO SHARE.
27
Repeat, Reuse, Review:
Stepping Stones to Fluency
THERE CAME A POINT LAST SEMESTER IN MY INTERMEDIATE ESL CLASS
WHEN I WAS SHOCKED TO HEAR MY
STUDENTS USING CONDITIONAL “IF”
CLAUSES WITH A FAIR AMOUNT OF
ACCURACY AND FLUENCY: “IF I HAVE
TIME THIS WEEKEND, I’LL CLEAN
MY HOUSE” AND EVEN THE MORE
COMPLEX “I WOULDN’T DO THAT IF I
WERE YOU.”
I was really impressed. How did they do
that? These intermediate students who
had been the U.S. for years, in some
cases, had some conversational English
but very little academic English or more
“advanced” grammar.
Then I remembered. Well, they knew
how to use the conditional because I had
taught it in class.
It seems strange that a teacher would be
surprised that a student would actually
know something the teacher herself had
taught, but there is that element of shock
sometimes in seeing progress in students because so much of what we teach
in English classes goes unlearned (begging the question if we really taught it).
This lack of learning of the “taught” curriculum occurs for a variety of reasons,
primary among them the need for more
practice than students generally get in an
ESL class. Some of the students in this
class were native-born Americans, or
had lived here for many years, yet they
remain intermediate English learners because they spend most of their time in
their cultural communities and were not
able to use English much of the day.
Given these circumstances of many ESL
students’ lives, the teacher’s job in ensuring students actually learn what is taught
becomes harder to accomplish, but it is
possible to make sure that students get
adequate practice of English to progress.
Mainly, students cannot be introduced to
a structure such as the conditional and
be expected to learn it from limited exposure. Rather, the instructor must set up
conditions to repeat, reuse, reformulate,
and review the material.
REPEAT, REUSE, REVIEW:
STEPPING STONES
TO FLUENCY
28
1
TEACH: MODEL
The first step in ensuring student
learning is to explicitly teach the material. Adult students in particular generally
have to have a structure such as the conditional explicitly introduced, discussed,
and clearly modeled with numerous examples, both orally and visually. They
may not respond well to more implicit
or indirect instruction that is sometimes
used with younger learners, who may
learn their second language much like
their first. To further process the structure, adult students must be able to ask
questions about it: which forms of it are
correct, how it may be used, what situations it can be used in, and so forth.
Toward the end of a session in which
the target form has been introduced,
the instructor can begin asking questions of volunteers in the target form: for
example, “What will you do tomorrow if
it rains?” and “Where would you have
gone if you hadn’t moved to California?”
Hearing and responding to questions
such as these gives students some initial
exposure to and practice with the form.
They can also ask and answer questions
of each other in pairs and small groups
for more practice.
2
REPEAT AND REUSE
The material must be continually
repeated if students are to learn it. The
instruction of a form like the conditional,
which is widely used throughout academic English for discussing hypothetical situations, should not stop at the end
of a single lesson: the material should be
repeated and reused the next day--and
the next. Students will not be bored, usually, when, the day after the introduction
of the conditional, they are asked at the
beginning of class “What are you going
to do if your last class of the day is cancelled?” Such repetition, a little each day,
further reinforces learning and ensures
that students will acquire the form.
3
REFORMULATE
Students at some point begin using
the form on their own, without teacher
prompting, showing that acquisition of
the material is taking place. Teachers
can use the opportunity of hearing stu-
dents using the newly learned material
on their own by extending the discussion
for further practice: for example, “Oh, so
you’ll go home for a visit if you get the
time this winter break. What else will you
do, if you have the time and money?”
provides a chance for an exchange using the target form in a different but still
common context.
4
REVIEW
After two or three weeks of practice of the curriculum, the real and unreal
conditional, in this case, there will often
be a unit quiz on the material. Preparation of the quiz is a good opportunity
to spend the better portion of a class
session reviewing its varying uses--depending on the level of the student--of
the conditional: both the real and unreal
forms, as well as use in varying tenses.
Students can practice in different group
formations: individually, in pairs, and in
small groups, reviewing both written and
spoken material.
5
REVISIT
Learning of a complex but ubiquitous form like the conditional cannot stop
with the unit test, of course. The instructor should revisit the material throughout the term, using different genres and
formats, such as a short reading in academic English, which almost always will
have contextualized uses of the conditional. Even music can be used, such as
a clip from “Fiddler on the Roof,” with the
main character Tevye singing “If I Were a
Rich Man,” a clear example of the unreal
conditional. Even more common, everyday uses of the form, such as giving advice or a warning “If I were you, I would--”
or “I wouldn’t do that if I were you!” can
be used almost impromptu as opportunity arises.
ACQUISITION OF A SECOND LANGUAGE,
PARTICULARLY ITS MORE COMPLEX
FORMS, DOES NOT STOP AT ONE EXPOSURE, OR EVEN STUDY OF ONE UNIT,
TO THE FORM.
Rather, opportunities must be created
by the instructor to continually repeat,
reuse, reformulate, and review the material.
4 Amazing Ideas for AccuracyFluency Balance
ALL OF US GIVE PLENTY OF THOUGHT
TO WHAT WE DO AND HOW WE DO
THINGS IN OUR ESL CLASSROOM.
We carefully plan things like, content,
techniques and even what material to
use in each lesson. However, where
activities are concerned many teachers suddenly become plagued with
uncertainty regarding fluency and accuracy. Which of them has more priority? Should we always balance them
out equally or is one more important
than the other in an ESL lesson? It
does seem tricky, after all if the activities are to fluency-based you run the
risk of having your students disregard
the proper use of structures, for instance. On the other hand, if the activities are too accuracy-based they
might become to obsessed with precision and might need too much time
to communicate. As with everything in
life, neither one extreme is better than
the other. It is all about the balance,
but the good news is, there are ways
to tell when fluency should preside
over accuracy and vice versa. Take a
look at these useful tips.
USE THESE IDEAS FOR
ACCURACY- FLUENCY
BALANCE
1
CONSIDER YOUR
STUDENTS’ AGE
Teaching kids is not the same as
teaching adults. So, as we all know,
the techniques, material, activities, etc
all need to be age appropriate. Regarding fluency and accuracy, many
ESL teachers that have young learners believe that over correcting and
focusing too much on accuracy does
not encourage children to learn to
communicate. Instead they become
prone to limited language use in order to have better control over their
responses. Kids need to feel relaxed
about language learning and using
games where they can build on fluency will help them feel they are capable
of more. This does not mean mistakes
should be ignored, but that they may
need to be addressed individually perhaps later on while the other students
are working on an assignment. Also,
when accuracy-based learning does
take place, always try to use activities
that are engaging so that kids ease
into them.
In the case of adults, many of the same
considerations apply, however since
adults understand the role accuracybased learning plays, what we should
consider the most is the students’ levels, needs and what the lesson goal is
at that point.
2
CONSIDER YOUR
STUDENTS’ LEVEL
At different levels students have different goals. Naturally, beginners
will have fewer, more limited fluencybased activities than students in higher levels. They are learning to communicate. The more students know
and are able to use, the more their
performance will enable them to become increasingly fluent. We need to
keep in mind that when students communicate fluently, it means that they
are comfortable using the language
and can be understood by others. This
does mean that there are no mistakes
in their communication, but that those
mistakes do not affect what they are
trying to get across. Accuracy is also
present in higher levels though many
teachers tend to place a bit more emphasis on fluency. The reason for this
is that accuracy refers to the correctness of the language being produced.
If students focus too much on accuracy, it doesn’t mean they will be capable
of producing effective communication.
3
tion phase is when our students need
to be more accurate. At this point the
teacher focuses on what is correct or
incorrect and ensures her students
can understand and are ready to begin to use what they have learned. As
we move into the practice and student
initiative phases, students are granted
more control over what and how they
say things. It is at this point fluency becomes more necessary.
4
SPECIFIC STUDENT NEEDS
Age and level aside, students
sometimes have very different needs.
This is why most of us often ask our
students why they are learning English. Their specific needs are very important when making important decisions about the lesson. In most cases,
adult students need to learn to communicate. Communicative competency refers to the ability of a speaker
to communicate effectively in the language. This ability is based on more
than just grammatical knowledge, the
objective is for students to be able to
communicate effectively, not to emphasize on the precise use of the language.
REMEMBER, ALWAYS STAY AWAY
FROM EXTREMES, BALANCE IS
WHAT SHOULD ALWAYS PREVAIL.
Do keep in mind though, leaning one
way or another is sometimes necessary depending on your students.
WHAT PART
OF THE LESSON IT IS
For most teachers, each lesson is divided into parts or stages depending
on how it was planned out. We usually begin by introducing something
new, like vocabulary, structures or
even expressions. After that, our students move on to practice what they
have learned. Different parts of the
lesson have different needs in terms
of fluency and accuracy. The introduc-
29
Get Them Talking Outside of Class:
3 Speaking & Listening Challenges
EVERY ESL TEACHER WORKING IN
A FOREIGN COUNTRY EVENTUALLY
REALIZES THAT ONE OF THE GREATEST OBSTACLES FACING THEIR STUDENTS IS A LACK OF OPPORTUNITIES
TO SPEAK ENGLISH.
Often students’ reading and writing skills
far outstrip their speaking and listening
skills simply because they are exposed
to more reading and writing than listening
and speaking. There is no reason for students to speak English other than within
the confines of the English classroom.
This does not mean there are not opportunities outside the classroom, they are
just not part of the students’ everyday life
and the students have no reason to seek
them out. So how can you, the teacher,
make students want to seek out opportunities for speaking English outside of
class? Well, you have to make it worth
their while.
One great way of doing that is through
challenges that must be completed outside of class. In this way, teachers can
create or force students to capitalise
on English speaking opportunities. Of
course these mean very little if there is
not a reward system in place. I have tried
tying this to my classroom reward system, and I’ve tried having a separate reward system just for the challenges. My
conclusion: it completely depends on the
class and how the existing reward system is structured. I know of one teacher
who set bars such as ‘complete five challenges and get a bonus point on your
test.’ Obviously, few teachers will have
the ability to start handing out bonus
points for government testing, but I think
you get the picture. So here are three
challenge ideas for you to consider.
CHALLENGE YOUR
STUDENTS TO SPEAK
AND LISTEN MORE
1
COLLECT INFORMATION
This task only really works if you
have several different English speakers
that you can call on to assist. Ideally, it
would be a mix of teachers at your school
and local business people, but if it is only
teachers at your school that is fine. For
30
teachers who are on good terms with
their colleagues who do not speak English, it may be possible to have them participate by teaching them the two phrases that they need to know to respond to
student queries. In this model there is
room for an entire series of challenges.
Everything from asking each person’s
favourite colour, to what they like to eat,
to getting the details about where they
went last summer or why they started
their business, etc. can be used as the
basis for the challenge, as long as it is
asked in English.
That’s all there is to this challenge. They
just have to find the people, ask questions, listen, and write down the answers.
Challenges like these are great early on
or good to put up in the weeks before exams when students are especially busy.
2
SCAVENGER HUNT
This is a more complicated version
of the collect information challenge. You
still need participation from other people
who are willing to speak English in the
school and, if possible, in the community. It also takes more preparation on
your part. Teachers create a set of clues
that take students around the school
or neighborhood to a final destination.
Remember that there will be a limited
amount of time for students to actually
spend travelling between destinations.
I tend to make the clues in the form of
a riddle so that they have to put some
careful thought into where to go next.
Given that this scavenger hunt is something that takes place out of class, it’s
probably best to keep the entire hunt to
three or four clues.
How these actually work will depend in
a large part on your own neighbourhood
and how good of terms you are on with
the local businesses. In my case, my
area has a café owner who is very friendly and speaks English. I am a regular
customer and he has assisted me with
various projects involving my students.
3
QUESTIONS ABOUT
AN ENGLISH TV PROGRAM
Wide availability of online English TV
programming provides an excellent opportunity for teachers to direct their students towards more English exposure.
Unfortunately, this type of activity is only
a listening activity, but it can be done by
any student with a good internet connection. Teachers must carefully select age
appropriate shows that can be accessed
in their country of residence. Korea, for
example, has quite rigid rules about accessible internet content. Once solid
content has been found, the teacher
can create several types of questions/
challenges around it. One option is to
provide dialogue gap-fill exercises for
specific portions of the show. This is best
for low level students as it requires only
listening for single words at specific intervals. Another is to ask the students
specific questions about an episode. (ie.
Why does [character] get angry at [character]?) This is a mid to high-level activity. It will only work if your students are
capable of following and understanding
conversations at native-speaker-speed.
A third option is to have students draft up
a summary of the episode. Be very clear
in your requirements for this. Do you
require a character list? A general plot
summary? Specifics about relationships
between characters? Make sure the students know exactly what you want.
Finally, make sure that you have watched
the episode yourself. If you are going to
evaluate their work, make sure you can
do so accurately. Also, it’s a great excuse
to watch a little TV. After all you’re working, right?
Alternative: If the students do not have
access to consistent internet, the teacher can lend out copies of various TV
shows in the appropriate media format.
This of course means the teacher needs
to create a decent library of these types
of files.
A FEW NOTES
ON DELIVERY
There are many ways to put these chal-
lenges in front of the students. I started a blog (there are plenty of free blog
sites) and posted a new challenge
there each week. This kept the process completely out of regular class
time. This worked for me as I only had
each class once a week and posting it on a blog meant that all classes
had the same amount of time to complete the task, regardless of when I
actually taught those students. The
downside to this was that only the
advanced, enthusiastic students really got involved until the end of the
term when kids were desperate to up
their scores. Other options include,
presenting the challenge every Monday morning. If you don’t teach all
your students on Monday, you could
have the school broadcast the challenge. The problem with this is that if
students miss the broadcast, or don’t
take notes on some of the more complex challenges, they won’t be able to
complete them.
IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT
THESE THINGS ONLY WORK IF THE
TEACHER KEEPS PUSHING THEM
IN CLASS AND KEEPS THE CHALLENGES IN THE FOREFRONT OF THE
STUDENTS’ MINDS.
When I had tied my class attitude
marks to my classroom reward system, I would display the students’
scores and then say things like, ‘for
those of you who are struggling a
bit, now might be the time to get into
those classroom challenges.’ Usually,
this would push a few of them into
greater participation.
31
How to Use a Class Party to Teach
10 Social Conversation Skills
ARE YOU TIRED OF YOUR TYPICAL
SOCIAL CONVERSATION ROLE
PLAYING EXERCISES?
ESL teachers know that possibly the
most important skill for learners is social
mixing and mingling conversation, but
role playing in partners or repetitions
often lack real life context and go stale
after a while. Give your ESL students
an opportunity to practice one-on-one
conversation with natives or advanced
speakers and liven up your class with
a real party!
PUT TOGETHER
A REAL PARTY
Invite good natured English speakers
to class, to an afternoon cocktail party,
a light lunch, or whatever other party
is culturally appropriate. You want to
have, at minimum, a ratio of one native
or advanced speaker to two students
if possible. Do whatever is within your
means and budget! If you are in a foreign country with few speakers, invite
an advanced class to come, or other
teachers.
SOCIAL SKILLS LESSON
Before the party, teach the following 10
basic social skills to students and have
them practice on each other. Give them
a debriefing checklist with the skills
before the party telling them that they
are responsible to record both the responses of the natives as well as note
their body language and other conversational cues. Give a certain number
of points for completing each task, and
award the student with the most points
a prize. Save time also at the end of the
party or the next class to have a gossip
session about the results!
HOW TO TEACH
10 IMPORTANT
SOCIAL SKILLS
1
THE GREETING
Your students probably already
know greetings and the difference between formal and informal salutations.
They might not have ever had a chance
to practice using them in a real social
setting, however. Tell them to see how
32
many different “hellos” and “I am well”
responses they can fit into their conversations! Award a point for each different
one used.
2
WHAT DO YOU DO?
Ask students to practice eliciting
vocation information in a social conversation context. They can ask “What
do you do?” and “Where do you work?”
Give them a point for each answer they
receive.
3
HERITAGE
Have students practice asking if
people are from around your community or from where their family originated. For each answer they receive, give
them a point. They can ask, “Where
are you from originally?” or “Do you live
around here?”
4
WHAT DO YOU LIKE TO DO?
It can be trickier getting personal
with strangers! Brief them that to ask
these questions about hobbies and
pastimes, they might have to wait until some information is offered from another question. For example, if they had
asked “What do you do?” and received
an answer like “I am a waiter but I really
love to write novels”, they can use that
as a cue to ask about a writing hobby.
Practice this skill before the party by
preparing a list of short dialogues for
pairs to take turns dialoguing in front
of the class. Give two sentences like
above and then demonstrate that they
should respond something like “Oh, so
you write in your free time?” Give two
points for each hobby solicited as this is
more challenging!
5
FAMILY
Students should wait for cues to
ask about family in most cases as well.
You can design another practice dialogue like in number four or teach to ask
general questions, like “Do you have
family in the area?” Give two points for
each specific data point they can figure
out via open ended questions.
6
CONNECTIONS
Have them try to figure out how
people are connected to the group. This
is an important social skill and a good
conversation starter. They should ask,
“How did you get involved in this party?” This is a great way to solicit work,
hobby, and heritage information as well!
Give two points if students can figure
out how your native speakers ended up
at the party. If you invited an advanced
group, have them try to discover why
they are studying English.
7
BODY LANGUAGE
Give a point for each body language note students deliver. For examples, they should focus on 1) if people
look them in the eye when they speak
and 2) if people laugh or smile during
the conversation.
8
GIVE BACK
Give students a point for each appropriate response they give to elicited
personal information. For example, if
they manage to discover where a native’s family is from, they should respond with where they are from! Giving
back is critical to dialogue.
9
MANNERS
Teach the art of polite interjections, such as “I see”, “how interesting”,
and “that sounds amazing”. For each
proper use, give a point.
10
WHEN TO QUIT
Teach students to look for
cues of when a mingling conversation
should end. Cues can be “My drink is
empty”, “I need to go to the bathroom”,
or body language hints like they begin
looking away. For every proper cue noted and responded to by walking away,
give a point.
SOCIAL CONVERSATION SKILLS MIGHT
BE THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT OF
ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING FOR
ESL STUDENTS.
When practicing in class has become
boring or just does not seem like
enough, take experiential to the next
level and bring the party to your students!
Help Your Students Know When to
Be Formal with These Useful Tips
THERE IS A LOT ABOUT SOCIAL INTERACTIONS THAT CAN MAKE QUITE A
FEW OF US ANXIOUS.
Moreover, when those interactions are
with people from other countries. Now
put yourself in your students’ shoes. They
constantly need to interact with people,
mostly from other countries. And believe
me, they have a lot on their minds. Our
poor ESL students are plagued with worries. They are often scared about asking
certain questions or bringing up certain
topics. Regarding social interactions,
there is one that really gets our ESL students worked up: formality. When to use
formal language and when not to is one
of the many issues our students have to
deal with. Well, the good news is there
is plenty we can do to help our beloved
students in this area too. Take a look at
the awesome tips below and put your
students’ minds at ease.
HELP YOUR STUDENTS
WITH THE FORMAL
LANGUAGE
1
•
2
Typically in formal language we
don’t use contractions, whereas we
do with informal English. I would not
like to vs I don’t want to
WHEN SHOULD IT BE USED?
Now that we know what it is, we
should consider when it is appropriate to
use formal English. So, in essence formal English is a way of speaking that you
usually use when you are not well acquainted with the people you are talking
to. Since you are unfamiliar to them , it
is a great way to show respect and keep
a distance. Distance is also important
when talking to people who are higher in
status or in the case of business, people
who are in higher positions. Take a look
at the following examples.
•
In academic environments, when
writing essays for a class and when
addressing teachers/professors.
•
At work, when writing an email to
people you don’t personally know.
•
Also at work when speaking to a
customer/ supplier who is new or
who you personally have never
worked with.
•
Traditionally when speaking to
someone who is significantly older
than you, people have always used
formal language to communicate
merely because it is a sign of respect.
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?
To start, the first thing we need to
ask ourselves is what formal English is
and how it is different from informal English.
•
longer more complex structures.
you accept them. In few cases, however,
being excessively formal when it is not
necessary can bring about the opposite
effect. People might misinterpret the distance in formality as some kind of rejection. Even business related situations
sometimes call for and depend on informal interactions. When in doubt, pay
close attention to others and how they
communicate in these situations.
FOR ESL STUDENTS NOT EVERYTHING IS EVIDENT REGARDING SOCIAL
RULES.
They have to understand that formality
should be used only when it is necessary. They need to be able to tell when it
is advisable and when it isn’t. Help your
ESL students demonstrate to others how
they can go the extra mile. Help them
show others they are capable of adapting and that they can handle anything.
3
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT TO
USE FORMAL ENGLISH IN
When we use formal English, we THESE SITUATIONS
use fewer phrasal verbs and more
vocabulary derived from French and
Latin. Generally, we use words that
are considered more sophisticated.
•
Indirect language is also much more
common in formal English. Using
the passive, for instance, makes everything less personal.
•
The use of synonyms in order to
avoid repeating the same vocabulary is another classic example.
•
Sentences are better organized and
thought out, and they tend to have
Now, to finish off our last point, here
are some interesting questions I’d like
to share with you. Why is using formal
language so important?.What might
happen if you don’t use it? Could you
be shunned from society or something
like that? The answer to the last question is no of course, at least not most of
the time. Formality is important because
it shows that you can communicate in
a professional manner, that you have
respect for others and that you are willing to demonstrate that when communicating with them. It shows that you feel
comfortable with social rules and that
33
10 Essential English Skills Your
Students Need for College
ESL STUDENTS STUDY ENGLISH FOR
A PURPOSE, AND FOR MANY THAT
PURPOSE IS HIGHER EDUCATION.
Men and women, young and old travel
great distances to attend colleges and
universities. Many of them, though,
must improve their English skills before they are accepted to the programs they desire. To make sure your
ESL students are ready for class before enrollment day, check this list of
English skills your students will need
in college.
READING
1
READING TEXT BOOKS
One key to a successful college education is reading the texts
that the professor assigns. This element can be even more important for
ESL students than typical students
since what they do not understand in
lectures they will usually find in their
texts. Your students will need to know
how to read technical material and
decipher unfamiliar vocabulary from
context. Teach your students to notice clues to understanding important
parts of the textbook like subheadings, bolded and italicized words and
chapter summaries.
2
READING SCHEDULING
MATERIALS
Before they can buy the right textbooks, though, they will need to know
what classes they are taking. Reading is more than just prose on a page.
ESL students will have to understand
class scheduling and degree requirement information as it is written for the
student body. Taking the right classes
at the right time is key to graduating
on time, so be sure your students
are familiar with reading charts and
graphs in addition to prose selection.
3
READING ELECTRONIC
COMMUNICATION
In today’s world, face to face communication is a rarity. More often students
and teachers communicate through
34
email or text messages. Often, these
written communications do not follow traditional grammatical rules, and
your students will have to be flexible
enough to understand loose grammar
and cryptic abbreviations. Try looking
at real life examples in class on a regular basis to give your students some
foundation in the texting world.
4
READING
FOR ONLINE COURSES
Online courses may keep students
out of the classroom, but they require
even more reading than traditional
classes. Your students will need to
read online course material as well as
students’ responses in almost every
remote class they take. Make sure
your students understand that even
native speaker grammar is not always
right, and challenge them to understand the meaning behind less than
perfect syntactic structures.
WRITING
5
PAPERS AND ESSAYS
Essays are prolific among college courses. Of course, the area of
study in which the class falls will influence how many essays the professor expects as well as how long those
papers will need to be. Make sure
your students understand basic essay
structure – introduction, body, conclusion – and know how to use different
organizational strategies to articulate
their thoughts on paper.
6
ESSAY BASED EXAMS
Oh, the dreaded essay exam.
Not only does the student have to
have strong grammatical skills, he
has to put down the correct ideas and
all in the time frame of a typical class.
Giving your students plenty of opportunities for timed writings on challenging subjects will give them the mental and linguistic preparation they will
need for essay tests. Learning the
content is up to them.
7
WRITTEN REACTIONS
TO WORK
OF FELLOW STUDENTS
Along with reading online material for
remote classes, your students will be
required to comment on postings from
their fellow students. Make sure your
students know how to type on a standard keyboard and can communicate
their ideas without being too brash or
too coddling. Finding the fine line to
walk the truth and cordiality is the real
skill with posting reactions to students’
work.
LISTENING
8
LISTENING AND UNDERSTANDING LECTURES
Of course, your students will have to
sit in lecture halls with hundreds of
other students, particularly in their first
years of classes. Give your students
lots of opportunity to practice by inviting guest speakers to your classroom
and then checking your students’
comprehension. Encourage them to
ask questions of each speaker and
give you feedback based on the lecture.
9
UNDERSTANDING
FELLOW STUDENTS
Study groups are helpful means of
learning difficult material, so you will
want your students to feel comfortable
having a conversation with a typical
native speaker. Conversation partners, guest speakers and real world
listening and speaking practice will
all help your students know what it is
really like to talk to a native English
speaker.
SPEAKING
10
ASKING WHEN
THEY NEED HELP
Though technically a language skill,
asking a professor or fellow student
for help takes more than skill of the
tongue. Pride can keep some students
from asking for help even when they
are studying in their native language.
Other students keep their mouths
closed when they are confused because they are too embarrassed to
admit that they need help. Before your
students leave your ESL program to
attend classes in English, make sure
they know their professors are there
to help. Every college educator will
assist their students and help them
succeed. Your students need to feel
confident that they can approach their
professors for help when they need it.
IF YOU MAINTAIN RELATIONSHIPS
WITH YOUR PAST STUDENTS, THEY
CAN TELL YOU DIRECTLY HOW THEY
WERE BEST (AND WORST) PREPARED FOR THE COLLEGE SCENE
BY THEIR ENGLISH CLASSES.
When they give feedback, listening
will be of the greatest benefit for both
you and them, so be open to their
feedback.
35
5 Nifty Tips on How to Help Student Handle Awkward Situations
LIFE IS FULL OF AWKWARD SITUATIONS, AND HANDLING THEM IS NOT
ALWAYS EASY.
However, managing them in a different language is much harder still. What
should you do in this type of situation?
When other people are involved, is it a
good idea to say something? Is there
a good time to do so? What if it is you
who has caused the awkwardness? I
guess we all ask ourselves these questions but when the people involved are
from other countries, the discomfort can
only rise.
There are many different kinds of awkward situations and fortunately there
are great techniques to handle them.
Let’s take a look at some of these uncomfortable scenarios.
DEAL WITH AWKWARD
SITUATIONS USING A
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
1
AVOIDING
PERSONAL QUESTIONS
Nosy people are everywhere. Some are
simply unaware their questions are too
personal or private. Others do it intentionally to get the dirt on others. Whether they are innocent or like to gossip,
the technique you should teach your
student is the same. Let them know
they can answer questions without
actually answering them. This is great
because they can manage the situation
comfortably without being too direct
about how they really feel. Take a look
at the example
Student 1: So, how much do you make?
Student 2: Not as much as I’d like but I
guess can’t complain.
Student 1: Why did you get divorced?
Student 2: Well, let’s just say my ex
husband and I didn’t have a lot in common.
2
I FORGOT YOUR NAME
Remembering people’s names is
extremely important if you want to build
strong relationships in life. We all know
36
strong relationships are one of the most
important factors for success. But,
who hasn’t forgotten someone’s name
at some point. This is a very common
situation and it is much more uncomfortable for those who forget than for
those whose name was forgotten. In
the business world, this can become
even more complicated. In any of these
cases, what we have to keep in mind as
ESL teachers is that there are different
techniques we can teach our students
to help them get through this.
This first option is quite direct. It is simply a an extraordinarily polite way to ask
someone to repeat their name. Take a
look at an example.
• Excuse me, I know we’ve met ,
could you tell me your name again?
are going to practice with your students.
Let’s take a look at some handy expressions to handle this.
What I meant was....
What I was trying to say was...
That wasn’t what I wanted to say.
Let me try that again.
5
YOU DIDN’T UNDERSTAND
In different social encounters
there is yet another difficult situation
many people face, specially those who
don’t speak the language. For ESL students, not understanding what others
are saying is truly very common. Again,
by teaching your ESL students these
useful expressions you can give them
great tools to cope with comprehension
issues.
This second option is a bit different.
• Hello, you are Jill from the accounting department, right?
• Hi, actually I’m Jane from the accounting department.
• Did I say Jill? I meant to say Jane.
I’m sorry would you mind saying
that again?
Would you mind repeating that?
Excuse me, could you please say
that again?
Excuse me, I didn’t catch that.
3
REMEMBER TO TELL YOUR STUDENTS
THAT IN ANY AWKWARD SITUATION
THE OBJECTIVE IS TO MANAGE AND
CONTROL THE SITUATION AS QUICKLY
AS POSSIBLE.
CHANGING THE SUBJECT
There are topics we all want to
avoid. Either because the timing isn’t
right or because you think it is downright inappropriate. Sometimes it is simply a good idea to change the subject.
As ESL teachers we need to provide
our students with useful language functions to suit different situations. Let’s
take a look at a few.
I’d rather not talk about that.
I don’t thinks this is a good time to
discuss that.
If you don’t mind, I’d rather not talk
about that now.
4
CLARIFYING
WHAT YOU MEANT
Sometimes what we what to express
doesn’t quite come out the way we intended it to. We say the wrong thing or
express something in a way that is misleading and right after that comes the
uncomfortable silence. The good news
is that it is possible to make things right
again, and that it is exactly what you
Practice different scenarios with them
and make sure they are ready because
social interactions tend to be very unpredictable.
Teach Your ESL Students How to
Manage Difficult Situations
WHO HASN’T BEEN IN A TOUGH SPOT
AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER?
I know I have. Sadly getting into a
mess is rather easy, but getting out of
one, not so much. Now let’s consider
our ESL students. Many of them will
need to travel abroad, and whether it is
for pleasure, business or study, being
able to interact with others is a requirement. Even if they don’t travel, they
might also have to interact with foreign
visitors and, because of that, they have
to be ready to face all kinds of situations. Don’t let them go through these
situations helpless. Prepare them by
talking about these possibilities and
practice with them. In difficult circumstances, they first need to understand
what went wrong and then find a way
to make it better. Let’s take a look at
the following scenarios and what you
can teach your students.
Keep in mind they can use these expressions themselves or understand
them if they are used by others.
PROVIDE LEARNERS
WITH AN EFFECTIVE
WAY OUT OF A TOUGH
SITUATION
1
AWKWARD
OR INAPPROPRIATE
CONVERSATION TOPICS
There are topics that can be awkward
or even inappropriate. There are things
that should not be discussed at certain
times or around certain people. Some
topics could offend others and cause
problems. The best solution to this is
to avoid or change the subject when it
comes up. Take a look:
I’m uncomfortable talking about
this.
Could we talk about something
else?
This is making me uncomfortable,
could we change the subject?
I don’t think this is the time to discuss this.
2
WHEN SOMEONE
WAS OFFENDED
Sometime we laugh at the wrong time
or use the wrong words. In any case,
offending someone without intention to
do so is very common. So what do we
do about it? These phrases can help:
I think I may have offended you. I
didn’t mean to do it.
I’m sorry I didn’t mean to offend
you.
That isn’t what I meant to express,
and I believe I may have hurt your
feelings. What I wanted to say
was....
There seems to be a misunderstanding what I meant was ...
3
WHEN A MISTAKE
HAS BEEN MADE
We all make mistakes and as the saying goes, “to err is human, to forgive,
divine”. So why not give someone the
opportunity to be divine. Teach your
student to apologize for mistakes they
have made. Look at the following:
I’m terribly sorry about any inconvenience I may have caused.
Please accept my apologies.
I’m very sorry about that.
4
WHEN IT ISN’T
A GOOD TIME
TO DISCUSS SOMETHING
Sometimes the problem is just poor
timing. Saying the wrong thing at the
wrong time can happen to anyone. In
this case what your students need to
learn is that the best way to handle this
is by cutting the conversation short.
Let’s talk later.
Let’s continue this conversation
tomorrow.
Look at the time! I have got to run.
Let’s talk later.
Why don’t we discuss this tomorrow at lunch?
5
DISAGREEING
People don’t always see eye to
eye. We often disagree with each other
and that’s fine. Your students should
see that expressing a different opinion
is perfectly fine as long as they do this
with respect.
I’m sorry I simply don’t agree with
you on that.
I understand but I disagree
I have some reservations about
that.
6
ASKING SOMEONE
NOT TO DO SOMETHING
There are times we need to tell people what we want them to do and also
what we don’t want them to do. Asking
people to do things seem easier than
asking them not to do things. Again, it
is all a matter of showing respect and
consideration.
Would you mind not discussing
that at the meeting?
Could you please avoid mentioning that problem?
7
AVOIDING COMMITMENT
Some people ask for too many
favors. For many it is awkward to say
no to favors, but it shouldn’t be. There
are times we can take on new commitments and times we can’t.
You’d better ask someone else to
do that. I’m not sure I’ll be able to.
I really can’t make any promises. I
have so much on my hands already.
I don’t think I can handle that right
now. Why don’t you ask someone
else?
DON’T LET UNCOMFORTABLE SITUATIONS PARALYZE YOUR STUDENTS.
With a bit a of practice, they will get the
hang of it.
37
10 Learning Centers Perfect for
Listening and Speaking Class
ARE YOU LOOKING FOR A WAY TO
INCORPORATE LISTENING AND
SPEAKING LEARNING CENTERS
INTO YOUR ESL CLASSROOM?
Try one of the following with your class
and give students some ownership in
their own language learning process.
APPLY THESE 10 IDEAS
FOR LISTENING AND
SPEAKING CENTERS
1
READING RECORDING
If you have the resources (tape
player/recorder or some digital recording method) you won’t need
much more to set up a reading and
recording center for students to evaluate and practice correct pronunciation. Simply set out the recording device along with several copies of a
short reading passage. The reading
passage should be something your
students can read in two to five minutes and that includes a variety of pronunciation challenges. Students using
the center read the passage into the
recording device and then play it back
to check their own pronunciation. As
they listen, they should mark on the
reading passage any problems they
note in their own pronunciation. You
can also leave a recording of yourself
at the center for students to use as a
model or reference.
2
PHONOLOGY FOR YOU
AND ME
If you have taught the phonological alphabet to your ESL students, this center might be right for your class. Since
the phonological alphabet focuses
on pronunciation and sound, unusual
spellings won’t throw your students
off, even on unfamiliar words. This
simple set up learning center gives
students sets of vocabulary words
written in the phonological alphabet.
They read the words aloud and then
match each word to its definition,
which you can list on a separate piece
of paper or write on index cards. Students will get practice with accurate
pronunciation while they also review
38
vocabulary and won’t get tripped up
by reading difficulties.
3
INTERVIEW
FOR ME AND YOU
This learning center is designed for
two students at a time. At the center,
simply provide a list of interview questions for students to ask their classmates. Students using the center
will interview each other using these
questions or others like them. Students should take turns asking and
answering questions while they try to
learn new things about someone they
see every day.
4
LISTEN AND LEARN
If you want your students to
practice listening and identifying what
they hear, you can set up a dictation
center. Give your students several
choices of listening selections (passages you have recorded yourself,
listening resources like cds or other
teaching materials you won’t be using
in class, online videos or audio selections, podcasts, etc.). When using the
center, students should listen to the
material, stopping the recording as
necessary, and write down what they
hear word for word. This will require
careful listening along with speed and
accuracy. You should also provide a
transcript for each recording so your
students can check their accuracy
once they have completed writing the
passage.
5
LISTENING FOR DETAIL
Can your students pick out important information when they listen
to English, information such as dates,
names and other specifics? On a
classroom computer, bookmark or
download some short informational
passages. How to videos on YouTube
are great resources for this type of listening. For each video, list five or so
informational questions on an index
card that the video answers. As a student listens to the passage, he notes
the answers to the questions on a
separate piece of paper. At this learning center, make sure you also have
answer keys so students can check
their own answers.
6
HOW DOES THAT SONG
GO?
This learning center challenges students to listen for specific vocabulary as they listen to a popular song.
Choose some of your favorite tunes
or those you think your students will
like that also have easily discernable
lyrics. For each song, print out a copy
of the lyrics with key words replaced
by blanks (like a modified cloze exercise). As your students listen to each
song, they should fill in the missing
words as they hear them. As always,
provide answer sheets for each song
at the learning station so students can
check their own work after they listen.
7
LISTEN AND WATCH
The British Council provides free
listening activities on their website for
ESL students. Videos range from beginner level to advanced and come
with activities your students can do
as they listen. Simply direct your students to the website on a classroom
computer or on your students’ smart
devices. All they have to do is choose
a video and an exercise to go with it.
Note the segments on this website are
in British English, so they might not be
the best choice for those learning and
teaching American English.
8
FOLLOWING
INSTRUCTIONS
If your students like working with their
hands or exercising their art skills, this
center will fulfill their learning style
like no other. Your students will be following your directions for constructing an object with building blocks or
drawing picture. If you choose to use
Lego building blocks, record yourself
as you talk through building a simple
item. It might be a house, a letter of
the alphabet, or any other simple design. Make sure your recording speci-
fies colors and sizes of the blocks. At
the center, make the Legos and the
recordings available to your students.
As they listen they should follow your
directions and, hopefully, build the
same object that you did. Similarly, if
you want students to draw rather than
build at this station, record yourself
giving directions for drawing a simple
picture without telling students what
they are drawing. Include a reference
photo at the center so your students
can check their work. Once students
have listened to a passage and drawn
a picture or built something, they
should check the reference picture to
see how close they got to replicating
your design.
9
OLD BOOKS TO NEW USE
Do you have listening books and
materials from a previous class that
you aren’t using this year? I know I
have several on my bookshelf. These
materials can have a second life in
a learning center for your students.
Simply put out the book and the audio
that goes with it and let your students
learn at their own pace.
10
ONLINE LISTENING
Lots of ESL websites have
listening activities your students can
do on their own. Bookmark a few of
your favorites on a classroom computer and let students go to it.
LEARNING CENTERS ARE GREAT
FOR HELPING STUDENTS BECOME
INDEPENDENT, MOTIVATED LEARNERS. THESE ARE JUST SOME OF
THE WAYS YOU CAN INCORPORATE
THEM INTO YOUR LISTENING AND
SPEAKING ESL CLASS.
39
6 Most Popular Teaching Methods,
& Which One You Should Be Using
PEOPLE HAVE BEEN LEARNING
SECOND LANGUAGES FOR AGES.
English hasn’t always been the popular
choice. Once upon a time those who
were considered “cultured” learned Latin and/or Greek. Soon after French was
the popular choice where second languages were concerned. English as a
second language gained importance not
so long ago, in the mid nineteenth century. Before the late nineteenth century,
second-language instruction followed
what was called a Classical Method of
teaching. Latin and Greek lessons were
based on repetition drills and students
were asked to read translations of ancient texts. Since the 1940s, communicative skills gradually became more and
more important to those who wanted or
needed to study other languages and
that’s when many of the different Theories of second-language acquisition began to appear.
FIND YOUR TEACHING
METHOD
1
THE DIRECT METHOD
Teachers have been using the
Direct Method for years. The benefit of
using this method is to immerse the students in English. This is done by providing demonstrations on how to use the
language with the the help of realia and
visual aids. The teachers who use this
method teach grammar inductively, in
other words, the rules of grammar are
not taught directly. Grammar rules are
avoided as much as possible and there
is emphasis on good pronunciation.
Teaching with this method is performed
entirely in the target language and students are discouraged from using their
native language.
2
AUDIO-LINGUAL
This method became very popular
in the 1960s and was based on the behaviorist theory of learning. It held that
language learning is a kind of behavior,
similar to other types of human activity. According to the behaviorist theory, teachers elicit responses through
stimuli. The response is reinforced by
40
the teacher and if this reinforcement is
positive, it encourages the repetition of
the response in the future. In essence,
it relies on the idea that learning a language is like acquiring habits. For audiolinguism, language learning requires
students to master the building blocks
of the language and learn the rules they
need to know to successfully combine
these basic elements. Typically, there is
a great deal of practice through dialogs
and conversations. New language is
first heard and extensively drilled before
being seen in its written form. Dialogs
and drills are central to the approach.
Accurate pronunciation and control of
structure are of paramount importance.
3
TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE
(TPR)
TPR or Total Physical Response, developed by James Asher in the 1960s,
is based on the theory that the memory
is enhanced through association with
physical movement. It is also closely
associated with theories of mother language acquisition in very young children,
where they respond physically to parental commands. TPR as an approach to
teaching a second language is based,
first and foremost, on listening and this
is linked to physical actions which are
designed to reinforce comprehension of
particular basic items.
4
COMMUNICATIVE LANGUAGE TEACHING (CLT)
Our knowledge of second language
learning has changed a lot. Before,
language learning was based on how
well students knew and could manage
grammar and the learning was under
the teachers’ control. Views on language learning have changed a great
deal in recent years. It is now seen as
interactions of the learner and those
who use the language. Language is
used to create purposeful and meaningful interactions. Also, learners are able
to experiment with different ways to say
something. The focus of communicative
language learning is to enable learners
to communicate effectively and appropriately in the various situations they
would likely find themselves in.
5
TASK-BASED LANGUAGE
LEARNING
In Task-based learning the main focus
of the teaching is on completing a task.
The task in itself is interesting to the
learners and they need to use the language they already have to complete it.
More attention is placed on the use of
the language and not much on accuracy. Language is the instrument the students use to complete the task . It is an
activity in which students use language
to achieve a specific outcome. The activity reflects real life and learners focus
on meaning, they are free to use any
language they want. Some great examples of tasks are playing games, finding
information and even solving problems.
By using them, students will generate
their own language and create an opportunity for language acquisition
6
THE NATURAL APPROACH
It is a language teaching approach
which claims that languages are learned
the same way people naturally acquire
their native language. It focuses on the
similarities between learning the first
and second languages and adheres to
the communicative approach to teaching. In this approach, students learn by
being exposed to language that is comprehensible or made comprehensible to
them.In this approach communication is
considered the primary function of language therefore it focuses on teaching
communicative abilities. In other words,
language is viewed as a vehicle for communicating meaning and messages and
vocabulary is very important to achieve
this. So, this means that language acquisition takes place when the learner
understands messages in the target
language and has developed sufficient
vocabulary. In fact it, according to the
Natural approach, should be easier to
reconstruct a message containing just
vocabulary items than one containing
just the grammatical structures.
SECOND-LANGUAGE TEACHING HAS
DEFINITELY COME A LONG WAY
AND CONSIDERING HOW MUCH WE
KNOW NOW, IT HAS A LONG WAY
TO GO STILL.
It is hard to say which method or approach is the best. Different students
and needs may require you use more
than just one, even at a time. The trend
has been toward combining different
methods and approaches, and this is
probably the healthiest approach for it
accommodates many styles of learning. Also, it allows teachers to decide
which elements are most effective
and which of them really work in the
classroom. If you combine methods,
you take the best that each has to offer, after all, teaching languages is not
easy. In the end, its all about providing
our students with the tools they need
to function in the target language.
41
No Prep, Little Prep, & More Prep
Ways to Get Them Ready to Learn
HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO JUMP
RIGHT INTO A SEQUEL LONG AFTER
READING THE FIRST BOOK OR SEEING
THE FIRST MOVIE?
It takes some time to get your bearings, doesn’t it? To really get the most
out of book two, I find it helpful to read
book one again to refamiliarize myself
with what has happened. ESL students
learning something new in class have
a similar predicament. They may be
okay jumping right into a new topic or
material, but it will take some time to
get adjusted and get their bearings. A
simple “review” activity before moving
on to new material can make a huge
difference in how well they absorb the
new information you are presenting.
In teaching terms, you may know this
process as activating the schemata,
helping students remember what they
already know about a topic or making connections with personal experiences before introducing to new material. That’s because learners retain new
material through connections with what
they already know. Simply helping them
remember what they already know will
get them ready to quickly and easily
make connections to the new information you present.
Getting your students ready to learn is
therefore extremely important, and it’s
an essential part of your job as an ESL
teacher. You can do many things to help
your students remember what they already know before moving on to a new
collection of information. Here are some
of the ways you can do it.
USE THESE NO PREP
WAYS TO ACTIVATE
SCHEMATA
1
ASK QUESTIONS
The easiest way to help students
remember experiences with a certain
topic is to ask them questions about
it. Say you are doing a unit on sports.
Ask students questions like these: What
sports do you like to play? What sports
do you like to watch? How many sports
can you name? What can you tell me
about rules of certain sports? Did you
42
ever do something great while playing a
sport? How did you feel? What did you
do? Just asking simple questions like
these will get students thinking and remembering and will lay the foundation
for the new information you give them.
2
HAVE SMALL GROUP
DISCUSSIONS
Dividing your class into groups and telling them to talk about the topic at hand
may be enough to get the conversation moving. The thoughts and memories some students share will bring up
memories for other students, which they
should share in turn. That’s why it’s also
a good, no prep strategy for getting students ready to learn. If your students
need more prompting than just the general topic, give them a few questions to
get the discussion started.
3
BRAINSTORM
Making a simple list related to your
topic is an easy and quick way to remind
your students what they already know.
You might want to brainstorm a list of
vocabulary, experiences, or something
else related to what you will be teaching
your students. It doesn’t take any preparation on your part, but your students
will still reap the benefits.
CONSIDER LITTLE PREP
WAYS TO ACTIVATE
SCHEMATA
1
BRING IN A COLLECTION
OF PICTURES
If you teach the same subjects year after year, it will be worth your time to start
a collection of pictures related to each
unit. Collecting pictures from magazines, your personal experiences, and
online resources will give you something to share with your students before
you introduce new material. Show one
or more pictures to your students and
ask them what they see, how the pictures make them feel, and what the pictures make them remember.
2
HAVE STUDENTS BRING
IN THEIR OWN PICTURES
Either after showing your pictures or
instead of it, invite students to bring in
their own pictures related to an upcoming unit (just make sure to plan ahead
so you have the pictures when you are
ready to introduce the new material).
Ask students to share some information
about the picture, where they were, how
it felt, and what they remember. Give
everyone a chance to share either in
front of the class or in small groups, and
your students will be ready to absorb
new information related to the topic.
3
DO A K/W/L CHART
K/W/L charts are a great way to
help students get ready to learn. You
can have students do them individually on a piece of paper or do one as an
entire class on the board. If you have
never done a K/W/L chart before, it’s
very easy. Divide your board into three
columns. In the first column, write what
you already know about a topic. If you
are doing the chart as a class, you can
include everyone’s information in the
same column. In the second column,
make a list of what you want to know
about the same topic. Likely, this column will be filled with questions from
your students. (Bonus point: it’s a good
time to talk about how to properly structure questions.) The final column contains what you learned after getting the
information, so save that one until you
share the new information with your students. You can also use this third column to assess how much they understood and remembered from what you
taught if you have students complete it
individually.
4
FILL IN
A GRAPHIC ORGANIZER
Either as a class or in smaller discussion groups, filling in a graphic organizer can be all your students need to
remember what they already know.
These organizers might be as simple as
a few titled columns or as complex as a
flow chart. It’s up to you to decide what
will work best for your class and how
much time you have for preparation.
You can find templates for graphic organizers online or in many print teacher resources.
TRY MORE PREP
WAYS TO ACTIVATE
SCHEMATA
1
MAKE A SENSORY
OR SMALL WORLD BOX
ON THE TOPIC
GETTING STUDENTS READY TO
LEARN DOESN’T HAVE TO BE COMPLICATED, BUT IF YOU HAVE THE
TIME TO PREPARE YOUR OPTIONS
ARE EVEN MORE NUMEROUS.
Even a simple discussion can be
enough to get students ready to learn
new material you present in class.
If you take the time to get students
ready and the time to prepare those
activities, you will find that your teaching is more effective and your students
are more successful. And doesn’t that
make it all worth it?
If you teach younger children, making a sensory box or small world bin
is a great and interesting way to help
students remember what they already
know. In a medium sized box, collect several objects related to the unit
you plan to teach. If you are going to
teach a unit on sports, for example,
your box might include a ball, a ticket
stub for a sporting event, a whistle,
pictures of players or their cards, a list
of rules on how to play, etc. Introduce
the items to your class and ask them
to share what the objects make them
think about or feel. If you are creating a small world bin, your goals are
slightly different. Small world bins
usually have a base material along
with items that students can use in
pretend play. If you are teaching a unit
on sports, you might have shredded
green paper for your base (to simulate
a grassy field), small figures especially those dressed in sporting uniforms,
small sports balls and props to create
a playing field such as nets or goal
posts. Encourage your students to
play with the small world bins before
you introduce your topic.
2
DO A THEMED
SHOW AND TELL
The day before you plan to introduce
your topic, give students a show and
tell assignment. Ask each person to
bring in something related to the topic
you will be teaching on. On the day
of, have students share what they
brought and tell the class about it. As
they do, they will be remembering experiential details and at the same time
getting ready to retain new information with ease. And don’t think show
and tell is just for kids. Even adults will
benefit from speaking in front of their
peers and sharing something about
themselves in this simple activity.
43
How Was Your ESL Lesson? How
To Assess Your Own Teaching
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED HOW
WELL YOU ARE DOING YOUR JOB?
This is a question we all have to ask
ourselves. Though feedback from our
students is very useful, we shouldn’t always rely on them to provide this information since it is something we are quite
capable of checking on our own. How
well you are covering your students’
expectations and language needs is of
utmost importance and not something
you should take lightly. So what questions can you ask yourself to ensure you
are meeting your ESL objectives? Take
a look.
CHECK YOUR OWN
TEACHING QUALITY
OBJECTIVELY
1
GOALS
Having clear attainable goals is
important for any task one must accomplish. In the ESL classroom it is certainly no different. Setting goals allows us
to know and plan where we are headed.
They allow us to know what we have to
accomplish in each lesson and in each
level. When goals are not clear, we run
the risk of spending time on unnecessary things. Also, I encourage you to
share the goals for each lesson with the
students. By doing this at the beginning
of the class, your students will understand what will be covered during the
lesson, and they will know what to expect. Their language learning goals and
interests are central to the development
of the program. You should involve your
students in setting the goals of their program. So ask yourself:
• Were the goals clearly set at the beginning of the lesson?
• Were these goals appropriate?
• Were they accomplished?
2
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
As we all know, the more students
participate, the better they learn and retain what they are learning. Some theories suggest we all learn by doing, so if
that is the case, by using the language
students will be better prepared to communicate. What happens often is that
some students participate more than
44
others. Pay close attention to this, it is
a lot more common than you think and
sometimes we don’t even notice. Make
sure to call out your students’ names
and also, assign tasks clearly, so that
it isn’t always the same students asking
and the same answering. Take a look at
these questions.
• Did everyone participate equally?
• Was there sufficient student performance?
3
STUDENT MOTIVATION
Student motivation is key for their
progress. If the language and activities
are personally relevant, students will be
more motivated to comprehend and use
the language and the learning effect will
be much greater. Students want what
they learn to be immediately applicable
to their lives. They want to know why
something needs to be learned. Understanding and responding to students’
goals is one of the most important ways
of motivating our students. Also, success in itself is one of the greatest motivators. Giving students a sense of their
achievements and progress, is incredibly important. We also need to be sensitive to stages where they feel they are
not learning, and give extra encouragement. Another motivator is our general
attitude towards them. Remember that
our enthusiasm and liveliness is infectious and a good way to keep the ball in
the air is by using varied activities that
the students enjoy.
• Were students motivated in the lesson?
• Did you encourage your students to
achieve without pressure?
• Did you provide varied activities
that the students enjoyed?
• Did you provide a relaxed learning
environment?
4
MATERIAL
So, where does the content you
teach come from? In most cases it is
mainly provided by the course materials you chose for your students. Since
these books are created with a specific
target in mind, they aim to make the students’ exposure and use of the target
language as rich, varied, and meaningful as possible. They provide a variety
of language students will need and use
outside the classroom. It is important
to keep all this in mind when choosing
course material for your students since
understanding how the content of the
course works, will help you pin point the
key goals of each lesson. Also, in cases
where it is necessary, you will be able to
adapt the lessons to suit the particular
needs of your students.
• Was the material age/level appropriate?
• Was it relevant?
• Is there enough and adequate material for self study?
5
FEEDBACK
AND CORRECTIONS
Providing feedback for students is essential. They need to hear what they are
doing well and what needs work. However, we always need to consider the
way we correct students since it plays
a vital role in helping students become
confident in their learning or become insecure. Offering constructive feedback
and corrections at the end of the activities, and also encouraging self correction allows students to understand it
is all just a natural part of the learning
process. Involve students in evaluating
their progress throughout their course
as much as possible and remember to
focus and give feedback on students’
success as well.
• Were corrections clear?
• Was consistent feedback given to
students?
• Will there be follow up on corrections?
OUR STUDENTS DESERVE NOTHING
BUT THE BEST.
It is crucial for goals to be clear, since
they have a direct effect on student
motivation. Also, student participation,
your choice of course material and how
well you provide feedback are of great
importance where student progress is
concerned. Keep in mind that many life
goals like future employment and other
important personal goals might depend
on how well you do your job. I’m sure
you are well aware of what your students’ goals are, now make sure you
are aware of what you need to do to
help them achieve those goals.
Make lessons irresistible with these
ideas to boost your creativity
DO YOU EVER FEEL LIKE YOU ARE
RUNNING DRY ON CREATIVE IDEAS?
That happens to all of us from time to
time, and it certainly is a shame when
it does. After all, great lessons thrive
on creative ideas. Creativity makes everything more interesting and fun for
students. But, let’s face it, no matter
how creative we are, none of us have
a never ending pool of creativity to tap
into whenever we want. It just doesn’t
work like that. Creativity has more like
a flow and ebb to it. It comes and goes,
and how we are, or feel, have a lot to do
with that. The good news is there is a lot
we can do to improve it. Creativity might
seem innate, but it is actually a balance
of a natural condition and something that
can be acquired. In other words, creative
thinking can be enhanced, and doesn’t
necessarily depend on a natural condition. There are things we can do to improve our creativity. Take a look at these
tips on how you can rekindle your creative spark.
IMPROVE STUDENTS’
CREATIVITY
EMPLOYING THESE
IDEAS
1
KEEP YOUR STUDENTS
IN MIND
So, let’s imagine you are preparing a
lesson and nothing new comes to mind.
A popular approach to creative thinking
is to think about your students and how
they will relate to the lesson you are preparing. Ask yourself these questions:
•
What do they really need to learn
and how?
•
What are they sick of doing?
•
What are the problems they have
and what problem might they encounter with that particular lesson?
•
What do your students do? What
are their professions?
•
What do they enjoy doing in their
free time?
These questions and more like them,
can give you precious insight on your
students, where to direct the lesson and
what to avoid.
2
DON’T BE AFRAID
TO MIX THINGS UP
We all tend to go down the old beaten
path, once and again. Once we have
tried something and it works, we are often reluctant to change. Well, I am sorry
to tell you that this is murder on your creativity. Change is good, do things differently from what you would normally do.
Don’t be afraid to ask your students and
also, to share your ideas with them. Otherwise, you will never know if your ideas
will work out or not. Keep in mind that
some of your ideas will work and others
won’t, but that doesn’t mean it’s “right”
or “wrong”. Some things work with some
people and not with others. Also, your
students will definitely appreciate your
trying to make their lesson more appealing. After all, it is a great way to show
them you truly care about their learning.
3
SOURCES OF IDEAS
Creative ideas can come from a lot
of different places. Fortunately for ESL
teachers , there are a million ways and
even more to find ideas and information for our classes, and chances are
someone before you has already come
up with a great and very creative idea.
That’s why it’s important to chat with
other teachers to see what they are doing or how they might handle a specific
task. Or better, compare your ideas with
those theirs to see what they think. This
is great because the help there is mutual. In addition to sharing information
with fellow teachers, you can find a lot
of amazing ideas on the web. Sites like
busyteacher.org are absolutely priceless
when it comes to creative ideas. So,
don’t be afraid to do a little research.
4
happens, you need to move to another
location or move around a little. Perhaps even get some exercise or go for
a walk. Sometimes when we feel more
relaxed ideas come more readily. Since
there are certain factors that may stimulate your brain to make connections between brain cells, it is also a good idea to
change what you are doing temporarily
just to give your mind a break. Many say
that music is very useful here. If you feel
stressed, soothing music can calm you
down. On the other hand, if you want
inspiration, faster-paced music can be
much more useful.
5
GET ENOUGH REST
Teachers are human beings, and
many of us are juggling more than one
activity at a time. So, with that in mind
my last advice is to rest as much as
you can. If you feel exhausted, it is not
very likely you will be able to squeeze
out something creative from your head.
When you’re drained, everything you do
will lack luster. Don’t be afraid to take a
break, or even a nap. Have some coffee
or tea and watch a little TV. You’re ideas
will be better when your mind is fresh.
Also, creative ideas will come more easily. Often, we view breaks as a waste
of time. What we really have to keep in
mind is how much time you waste when
you can’t come up with fresh and creative ideas because you are too tired.
BEING CREATIVE DOESN’T HAVE TO
BE A PROBLEM AND IT IS DEFINITELY
SOMETHING ALL OF US CAN IMPROVE
WITH A LITTLE WORK.
Keep in mind that your creativity in class
can inspire your students to be creative
as well.
DO YOU FEEL BURNED OUT?
Stress is the mother of all creativity
killers. Spending too much time confined,
stressed, or pressurized will not help
anyone become more creative. If this
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