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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:
Its Not a Problem:
4 Out of the Ordinary
Advice Giving Activities
28 FLUENCY: Repeat,
Reuse, Review:
Stepping Stones to
Fluency
29 FLUENCY: 4 Amazing
Ideas for AccuracyFluency Balance
6 STEPS TO ENSURING
GREAT PRACTICE
A REMINDER
OF THE REALITIES
KEEP A RECORD
Ive found that students are beginning to lose respect for paper.
Ten years ago, it was routine to find all
of the semesters handouts and notes
carefully arranged in a labeled binder.
Nowadays, Im seeing more and more
scattered, incoherent notes, and dogearned handouts scrunched forlornly
at the bottom of schoolbags.
Normally, Id 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.
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. Theres a good maxim
for this:
SYNONYMS, ANTONYMS
AND COLLOCATIONS
THE DANGER
OF ONE-WORD ANSWERS
got home?
Student 3: Not so cold.
Student 4: Little cold.
Teacher: Well, Ive got three words,
then two. Lets go nuts. Whos got
four?
Student 2: It was a little cold last night.
Teacher: Heavens above, its 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, dont really help
the person youre speaking with, and
offer an artificially truncated view of
your language skills. It may seem as
though Im 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
10 SPEAKING
MISTAKES THAT YOUR
ESL STUDENTS NEED
TO OVERCOME
COUNTABLE/
UNCOUNTABLE MIXUPS
WORD CHOICE
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.
SUBJECT-VERB
AGREEMENT
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.
CONFUSING PRONOUNS
MISTAKING WORDS
THAT ARE SIMILAR
IN THEIR NATIVE LANGUAGE
My daughter is embarrassed and
will have her baby next month.
The students 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
USING INAPPROPRIATE
LANGUAGE
10
USING
THE WRONG STRESS
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 cant correct every
single mistake. Firstly, it seriously hin-
HOW TO IMPROVE
MISTAKES THAT ARE
MORE SUBTLE
How does a student come to understand that its ok to say something
is very expensive, but not very fabulous? How does a student know when
to ask, Whats 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:
SECRET CRUSHES
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?
YOURE SUCH A
GET DOWN
CUT!
EMBRACE IT
YOU TELL ME
WHAT IT MEANS
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.
HOW TO TEACH
EFL STUDENTS
WHEN SLANG
IS APPROPRIATE
BE COOL
ITLL BE ALRIGHT
OH MY GOD!
WHAT UP?
I DIG HER
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
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
10
IMPROMPTU SITUATIONS
Students get most excited about content that is relevant to their own lives.
Some of the pressure that students feel
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.
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. Heres how it can
be done:
11
PAIR UP
AND CHOOSE FAVORITES
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.
PRESENTATION TIME
QUESTION TIME
12
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.
GIVE LANGUAGE
LEARNERS ENOUGH
CONFIDENCE
TO SPEAK
REDUCE LEVELS
OF DIFFICULTY
SHARE EXPERIENCES
TOLERANCE OF L1 USAGE
DONT INTERRUPT
13
EQUALITY
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.
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
SETUP PROCEDURE
INTRODUCTORY
ROUND
Before the game proper begins, consider a first round which encourages
teamwork and communication. Ive
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:
Whats the height of the worlds
tallest mountain? (8848m Mt.
Everest)
POSSIBLE SUBJECT
AREAS
Ive 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 Ive found in their knowledge: remember that Jeopardy can
inform as well as review.
VOCABULARY
15
GRAMMAR
16
BUSINESS
GEOGRAPHY
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
CULTURE
HISTORY
SCIENCE
MATCHING ACTIVITY
PYRAMID GAME
This game requires very little preparation on the teachers 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 cant 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
SENTENCE ELIMINATION
GAME
17
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. Lets take a look
at a few.
ROLE PLAYS
18
BASIC EXCHANGES
Short exchanges are also popular and much more common. They
usually require a lot less time but
these exchanges dont 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. Im Mike.
B: Hi Mike, Im 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 students 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. Lets
take a look at some great activities.
DESCRIBING THINGS
DESCRIBING SEQUENCES
USING QUESTIONS
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 lets 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. Lets take a look at some.
ASKING CLASSMATES
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 its better to have a large family
or a small one? Why? Tell your partner about your ideal future family.
PARENTS
FAMILY TIME
BEST FRIENDS
ANIMALS
A REASON TO LEARN
DAILY HABITS
MY FAVORITE MEAL
10
I HAVE TO HAVE
11
A DAY OFF
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
YOURE A PRO
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
GETTING PERSONAL
16
17
PRIZED POSSESSIONS
18
ACCIDENTS HAPPEN
19
19
MAKING FRIENDS
20
DRESSING UP
GETTING EMOTIONAL
21
I WAS FRIGHTENED
WHEN
22
23
I WAS JEALOUS
WHEN
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
REMEMBER THAT
26
BEAUTIFUL PLACES
20
27
INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE
28
THROUGH A CHILDS
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
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
32
A BETTER WORLD
33
DINNER GUESTS
34
HINDSIGHT IS
They say that hindsight is
35
REMEMBER WHEN
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 cant 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.
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
ENACTMENT 1
So, now its 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.
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.
FEEDBACK 1
ENACTMENT 2
21
22
TRY THESE 4
METHODS FOR
CREATING SUPER
ENGAGING
ROLE-PLAYS
NEGOTIATION:
DESIGN:
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:
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.
23
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.
DISCOVER AWESOME
WAYS OF ENGAGING
YOUR STUDENTS
IN CONVERSATION
MAKE IT A GAME
WITH STAKES
24
SET UP
AN INTERVIEW SESSION
TAKE POLLS/SURVEYS
ASKING
PERSONAL QUESTIONS
CURRENT EVENTS
SOMETHING IN COMMON
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.
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.
25
PRACTICE ADVICE
GIVING IN A NEW WAY
HOT ADVICE
WHATS MY PROBLEM?
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.
COMPARING COUNCIL
GAME
27
TEACH: MODEL
REFORMULATE
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.
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 wouldnt do that if I were you! can
be used almost impromptu as opportunity arises.
CONSIDER YOUR
STUDENTS AGE
CONSIDER YOUR
STUDENTS LEVEL
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
CHALLENGE YOUR
STUDENTS TO SPEAK
AND LISTEN MORE
COLLECT INFORMATION
30
SCAVENGER HUNT
QUESTIONS ABOUT
AN ENGLISH TV PROGRAM
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 dont 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 dont
take notes on some of the more complex challenges, they wont be able to
complete them.
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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.
HOW TO TEACH
10 IMPORTANT
SOCIAL SKILLS
THE GREETING
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HERITAGE
FAMILY
CONNECTIONS
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.
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 natives family is from, they should respond with where they are from! Giving
back is critical to dialogue.
MANNERS
10
WHEN TO QUIT
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READING
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.
READING ELECTRONIC
COMMUNICATION
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READING
FOR ONLINE COURSES
WRITING
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
UNDERSTANDING
FELLOW STUDENTS
SPEAKING
10
ASKING WHEN
THEY NEED HELP
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AVOIDING
PERSONAL QUESTIONS
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CLARIFYING
WHAT YOU MEANT
PROVIDE LEARNERS
WITH AN EFFECTIVE
WAY OUT OF A TOUGH
SITUATION
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:
WHEN SOMEONE
WAS OFFENDED
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:
WHEN IT ISNT
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.
DISAGREEING
ASKING SOMEONE
NOT TO DO SOMETHING
There are times we need to tell people what we want them to do and also
what we dont 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.
AVOIDING COMMITMENT
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READING RECORDING
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 wont 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
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INTERVIEW
FOR ME AND YOU
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.
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.
FOLLOWING
INSTRUCTIONS
10
ONLINE LISTENING
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AUDIO-LINGUAL
40
TASK-BASED LANGUAGE
LEARNING
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It takes some time to get your bearings, doesnt 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. Thats 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 its
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.
ASK QUESTIONS
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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. Thats why its 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.
BRAINSTORM
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.
DO A K/W/L CHART
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. Its up to you to decide what
MAKE A SENSORY
OR SMALL WORLD BOX
ON THE TOPIC
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.
DO A THEMED
SHOW AND TELL
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GOALS
STUDENT PARTICIPATION
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STUDENT MOTIVATION
MATERIAL
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?
IMPROVE STUDENTS
CREATIVITY
EMPLOYING THESE
IDEAS
DONT BE AFRAID
TO MIX THINGS UP
SOURCES OF IDEAS
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