PRACTICAL IDEAS for EFL TEACHERS

Compiled & adopted by Galina M. Tatarchuk

CONTENTS

SOME ICE-BREAKING IDEAS

FOR BEGINNERS
FOR INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED STUDENTS
READING ACTIVITIES
WRITING ACTIVITIES
VARIOUS REVISION

SOME ICE-BREAKING IDEAS

This is an idea for the beginning of school especially helpful for teachers who
may have trouble learning new names. Put each students name on a separate
index card. Add information such as phonetic pronunciation, gender, etc. Use
when calling on students. Shuffle the cards after each round so students
cant anticipate their names. Ask questions first, then say the name so all
students listen to the question. This is also very helpful in assuring that you
call on students equally, not just the stars. It also cuts down on the
students who always want to be the one of ones to answer first. You can use
it as a way of taking attendance without taking time for that task. Just
eliminate the cards of those absent and it after class.

This is another good icebreaker for the first or second day of classes.
Material needed is an inflatable ball blown up. Students introduce themselves
and give their names to the class. Have students stand in a circle. Begin by
throwing the ball to someone else and have the student throwing say the
name of the person who is to receive the ball. (Teacher demonstrates first).
If the student cant remember the intended receivers name just ask the
person to repeat his or her name and then say the name and throw the globe.
When all names are familiar to all, stop and ask the students to name their
hometowns (ages or hobbies, etc). Discussion, Questions/Answers can follow
depending on level about each students town, home. Also, comparisons of who
lives furthest, who lives closest. Good practice for contrasting asking
another's name politely and informally, comparative/superlative adjectives
(further/furthest), reported speech relating to information about students
towns could follow pair work exchange of information about individual towns.

This is a simple first-day icebreaker available with both small and large
classes. The students think of three sentences, two are facts and one is a lie.
One by one, students introduce themselves and say their three sentences.
The rest of the class has to guess which one is a lie. Its best for the
teacher to go first, not only to provide an example, but also to let the
students know that the teacher is interested in interacting with them.

Instead of starting a class with all the students standing up and talking about
themselves, which can be scary to some, have the students pair up and
interview each other and introduce each other to the class as, This is my
friend (name), he lives in Moscow, etc Variations: have the students
interview each other and explain to the class the following topics: Their day,

Their favorite book and magazine and why, Their favorite food, a memorable
vacation, etc

Have the students line up by alphabetically order. DON'T help them. DON'T
organize it. Have the students ask each other their names and figure it out
together. Then you check it. Write the names on the board. Second, line up
by Last name, alphabetically. Then check. Other variations: Line up by
Birthday, Size of family, etc. Avoid obvious things like physical size, weight,
hair color, etc

After getting to know each other on the first day of class, on the second day
you may ask students to write something about themselves, or to fill in blanks
with information about themselves. Then mix up the papers and hand them
out again. Each student must read the paper she/he gets, and try to guess
who it is. (Works best with a large class.)

FOR BEGINNERS

Here are a couple of ideas for lower level students. Find some pictures of
fruit, colours or body parts etc. Drill the students by having them look at the
picture and repeat after you, i.e. banana, banana, banana The next picture strawberry, strawberry, strawberry etc. Then split the students into two
teams, and have them line up. Put the pictures at the front of the class,
facing the two lines. Then you call out one of the fruits, the first two
students at the front of their line/team run forward, the first one to touch
the correct picture (and maybe say it) gets a point for their team! Those two
students then go to the back of their lines and the next two have a turn!

WHO ARE THEY? Students are asked to make up the dialogues between
Dentist and Patient, Mother and Daughter, Librarian and Student etc., but
they can't use the terms for either role. Then they come to the front of the
class and act out dialogues. The rest of the class has to guess who they are.

WHERE ARE THEY? (E.g., at the Park, at a Party, in an elevator). Students

make up the dialogues, but, again, they cannot use the place name in their
role-play. You can make it a team game and the first team to guess the
correct answer gets a point.

Write down words from past lessons and put them on small strips of paper.
Put all the paper in a box (or hat) and the students took turns drawing a

word. Then they went to the front of the class (only 10 kids) and they had to
describe the word in English or through actions.

CHAIN REACTION. If the lesson's topic was pets, for example, you can try
this exercise. Start by choosing one student. Tell him/her what your favorite
pet is: "My favorite pet is the ferret", then ask him/her: "What is your
favorite pet?" He/she has to answer with a complete sentence and then,
choose a student and ask the question, and go on like this until everyone has
had a chance to ask and answer a question.

Reviewing and practicing question formation. Divide the class into groups of
three or four and ask each group to choose a famous person (Michael
Gorbachov, James Bond, Alla Pugachova etc.) Then give each group a page
labeled Answers. The answers can be like this:
1. Absolutely not,
2. Every night at midnight,
3. A good toothbrush,
4. Michael Jackson,
Etc. (Up to ten answers, each one to elicit a different type of
question).
Then tell the groups that they have to make a conversation between a
reporter and the famous person they chose. They have the answers, so they
will have to make the questions for each answer and arrange them in a
logical, conversational order. Then two members of each group presented
the conversation to the class.

CATEGORIES. Ask one of the students to think of a person in the class.

Then ask her/him, What season is this person associated with? The student
must answer in a full sentence. And there are limitless categories as
vocabulary gets richer (e.g. a car, a flower, a place, a colour, a piece of
furniture, a book, a song, etc.) The rest of the class should guess who this
person is.

FOR INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED STUDENTS

Here's a game idea for intermediate to advanced students. Some simple

pictures containing only basic shapes and lines: circles, triangles, squares,
rectangles, and straight and curved lines. Be sure to keep the drawings down

to two or three elements at first. Keep them simple! A 5x7 or smaller index
card works well for this.
Next split the class up into teams (if it's a large class), groups of three to
five work well. One person from each group is chosen to go to the blackboard to
draw. Without letting the draftsman see, give your drawing to his or her
teammates and have them tell the draftsman how to draw your diagram on the
chalkboard.
More advanced students can be taught to describe shapes by associating them
with other things: It looks like the moon with a bite taken out of it on the
upper left.

For intermediate to advanced students, you can use the game SCRUPLES to
get conversations going. The game includes a series of cards with "moral
situations" that require yes or no answers. Divide the class up into an even
number of groups, giving every second group the same question, and assigning
to them a yes or a no answer. What they have to do is discuss amongst
themselves reasons for their positions, and then express them to the rest of
the class in a kind of debating format. The class can then vote on which of
the two teams has the strongest arguments.

"SPLIT RIDDLES". Available with upper-intermediate+ students with good

results. Write the question to several riddles on slips of paper and write the
answers on another, mix them up and distribute the split riddles to students
and ask them to find the match. Sample riddles:
What is the #1 worldwide use of cowhides? (To hold cows together).
Why are scarecrows always winning awards? (Because they're outstanding
in their fields).
Why do people who live in the Sahara so rarely go hungry? (Because of all
the sand which is there).
What is our biggest problem today, ignorance or apathy? (I don't know and
I don't care).
What did the grape do when the elephant stepped on it? (It let out a little
whine).
What did one chick say to the other chick after their mother laid an
orange instead of an egg? (Look at the orange marmalade!)
Did you hear about the ship that was carrying a cargo of yo-yos that went
down off the coast of Taiwan? (It sank 2,356 times!)
If a man is born in Spain but hes raised in France and gets his first job in
New York City, then retires in San Francisco where he dies, what is he?
(Dead).
Why shouldnt you play poker in the jungle? (Because of all the cheetahs).

How do you get a mouse to smile? (Say cheese).

You get the picture. Anyway, it's a good, light-hearted activity.

THE NEW-VOCABULARY-HANG-MAN. Divide the class into two groups.

Draw two posts for hanging their men. Write a good simple definition for the
new vocabulary words. Then write the correct number of blanks for the word
and let each group take turns trying to discover the word. The students keep
rereading the definition to try to figure out the word that they remember
most of the words by the next class (without studying at home)!

For this activity, you should find four different paintings (one medieval, one
surrealist, one pre-Raphaelite and one realist) and bring them to class. Put
each painting in one corner of the room, and ask the students to visit each
painting and write down a list of as many words as they can find to describe
what they see. The words can include colours, shapes, objects, relationships,
situations, and any feelings the painting may give the student. Then try to
brainstorm a class list of words together on the board. This way, the
students get to share any vocabulary they've learned, and compare their
different responses. Finally, ask the students to write a short composition
about one of the paintings. The composition will have to include a detailed
description of the painting (the colours, shapes, objects, situations etc.), and
a brief "story" explaining what is going on in the painting. You may ask the
students to give the painting a title.

MURDER MYSTERY/JURY TRIAL. If you teach intermediate or advanced

conversation classes, you can use the following fun activity to engage them in
practicing questions/answers. First, create a "murder case" with enough
characters and lawyers to have each person in the class take a role. Give each
student a description of their role only (only they see and know this
information). Then, the lawyers for each side (prosecution/defense) must
interview each of the witnesses/characters involved in the murder case.
After all the students have been interviewed, stage a mock trial in class, with
you as the judge. This is also a good opportunity to go over some legal
vocabulary words. Have each lawyer ask questions of the witnesses and at the
end have the students discuss who they think is guilty. (Create a murder case
where there is uncertainty about the identity of the murderer).

Pair work is very important in larger classes, for obvious reasons. Bring in a
resume, or talk about resumes for a few minutes with the students what goes
on a resume. Next, have all students quickly (10 minutes) write a resumes in
English. Encourage exaggeration, lies (comedy is so important for enjoying a

conversation class). Next, have them work with partners taking turns
interviewing each for jobs. Choose the jobs: possible (fun) choices are
McDonalds, Gas station attendant, NASA Astronaut, CIA spy, Military
General, anything a little out of the ordinary, or at least not what the
majority of the students expect to do with their lives. Review frequently
interview questions beforehand. (The students will know the questions in
their native language for the most part). After everyone has interviewed and
been the interviewer, query the class on their success: Did the applicant get
the job? How did they do? It usually takes about 40 minutes.

READING ACTIVITIES

If your goal is to have the students explore and play with English, you can
take any textbook guided conversation and add a twist to it...emotions. For
example, asking directions from someone who is angry. It changes everything,
choice of words, body language, rhythm, and intonation. It is also a lot of fun
to watch the students play with it.

Ideas for using poetry. Take a fairly rhythmically simple poem like a ballad or
"Roses are red..." poem and drill it to death, analyzing rhythm, connected
speech diphthongs etc Next, get students to choose two phonemes that
they find difficult. They brainstorm words, which contain these phonemes.
Then, they try to compose a poem to fit a rhythm similar to the previous
poem, which may or may not use line terminal rhyming patterns. In the end,
get them to transcribe the poem into phonemic script, indicating connected
speech where appropriate. Lastly, they share the results around and try to
read them to each other.

This is a quick little activity to reinforce other lessons on the difference

between -ing and -ed adjectives (bored/boring, excited/exciting, etc.) Make
out slips of paper with the adjectives you want them to learn. Put the
students in pairs and give each pair a set of papers. So Andrew and Serge
have "bored" and "boring." Ann and Kate have "interested" and "interesting"
etc. Tell the students, and perhaps demonstrate for them, that they have to
act out or somehow demonstrate the difference between the two words and
have the class guess, "Who is 'boring'?" and "Who is 'bored'?"

You can use a version of concentration for reading. Buy a bunch of National
Geographics used and cut out all the pictures that are three inch square or
smaller. Paste the pictures on small pieces of construction paper. Once this is

done type out sentences that correspond to the pictures. E.g. "There are two
baby foxes playing next to a dead rabbit." Paste these on coloured
construction paper that corresponds to the color used with the pictures. You
can use multiple sentences for more advanced students. If you have a large
class make an appropriate number of sets (make sure you use different
coloured construction paper for each set, otherwise you'll have a pain trying
to sort them out if they get mixed). Since each set will be different because
of the pictures, you can use the game multiple times. You can use other
magazines, but National Geographic has the best and most varied pictures
Here are some suggestions to teach four language skills effectively using
reading materials:
(1)
Choose reading materials that students are likely to show their interest in.
This is very important as students will be reluctant to read if the reading
material is boring, and you cannot expect them to show their interest in it.
(2) Start your lesson with discussing topics relating to the reading material.
To do this, you should prepare the topics to discuss beforehand and give
them to students before they discuss them in groups and/or in class. This
way they will have time to prepare what to say, show more of their
interest in the reading material and understand it better when they read
it.
(3) Discuss the content of the reading material and the related topics, and
extend the discussion to the level in which students can express their own
thoughts and feelings about what they have discussed and read. To do
this, it is necessary to give students topics to discuss in advance so that
they can have enough time to prepare what to say as their thoughts or
feelings.
(4) Have students write compositions based on what they have discussed and
read in class. To do this, you can recommend students take notes about
what they have discussed and what has been written on the blackboard.
Besides, it is very helpful if you give them 'hints for writing' from which
they can get tips for writing compositions. This way they are well
motivated and inspired to write.
Textbooks often deal with reading materials that are rather difficult for
students to understand and discuss. So you can make your own textbook taking
your students level and interest into account. To do this, you can send them out
a questionnaire to know what topics they are interested in before you get down
to making it.

WRITING ACTIVITIES

Encourage your students to keep a dialogue diary with you. Every

day/week/whenever they feel like it, they write to you in an exercise book.
You read what they have written, and reply. The aim is to encourage fluent
writing through communication - writing is *not* corrected. It also helps to
build up good rapport between teacher and student. It can however require a
lot of work on the part of the teacher, depending on how many classes you
use the idea with, and on how many of your students write and how often
they do so. They can write about anything - they can tell the teacher about
their day/week, about their plans for the weekend, or they can ask about
problems they are having with English, or about the teacher. Make it an
optional activity, and not all your students will opt in anyway - only those who
want to.

Whenever you have an activity that students write, do not correct it. Type
the written assignments out WITH the errors. Photocopy. Place students
into groups, and give them the papers. As a group let them correct the errors
themselves. They like the interaction, and seem more interested because it is
their own actual work that is being corrected. After this group activity is
finished, as a class go over the possible correct answers together.

If you try to get your students to bring their senses into their writing, you
can use the following activities to demonstrate the power of the senses.
SMELL. Bring in a variety of smells, have each student close his/her eyes,
and then describe/guess what the smell is. Afterwards, smells are passed
around and smell metaphors are created.
SOUND. Bring in a tape of a rainstorm and play about a 10-minute
segment. Students have to answer the following questions:
Describe everything you hear.
Where is the scene taking place?
Are there any people?
What do you feel?
HOMEWORK. Students write a short story based on what they heard on
the tape.
SIGHT. Bring in a variety of objects, place them on a table, and cover
them with a sheet. After uncovering them, have the students study them for
approximately one minute. After covering them again, students have to list as
many of the objets as they can remember. Afterwards, each student chooses an
object and writes a brief description. Objects are passed around so that each
student is given a chance to describe a variety of objects. You can also place

chairs back to back (so each paired student cannot see one another). After
receiving an object, one student will describe and the other will write. After
guessing the object, a new object is given.

Divided the students into small groups of four/five, then distribute a piece
of paper with the beginning of the story/composition only like: I was about
to turn in and from my bedroom I For each group there should be a
different beginning. Give them (about 3 minutes each) to write (you can time
them), and when times up the next person in the group continues to write,
and so on till the last member of the group has written. In the end each
group exchanges stories. Their product should be put up behind the class for
everyone to listen to and evaluate.

Dictations seem to be an underused commodity.

One fun version is to paste the passage to be dictated on the wall outside
the classroom door and have the students, who have been put into pairs, pass
the information to each other. In other words, one student runs out, views the
passage, commits a phrase to memory, runs back in and passes it orally to her
partner. The partner transcribes it as best as she can. No spelling out of words
is allowed, and neither can the messenger look at what her partner is writing and
help her correct it. The first team done gets fifty points, the second done gets
47, and so on. Then a point is subtracted for each mistake, so teams have to try
to strike a balance between speed and accuracy.
Another version is to divide the class into teams, and tape the passage to be
dictated on the front board. The first player from each team runs up and gets
a phrase from the board, and passes the phrase to the first person in line. The
second player passes the phrase to the next, and so on to the end, where the
last player in the row writes down what s/he hears. The same scoring rules
apply. This is a notoriously difficult activity, so teams are best limited to 4 or
5 members.

This is a fun process writing exercise. Process Writing, as we all know, is

where ESL students learn that writing is process of creations and edits and
no one sits down and writes wonderfully the first time through. Heres how
its done. You need some old slides and a slide projector. You announce to the
class that you picked up your film yesterday and were given the WRONG film
by mistake. You need the class to play detective and help you find out about
this person.
Step 1: Show three slides. Ask the students to write (double spaced) what this
person does for a living.

Step 2: Now the students must slide their papers to their partner on the right.
Now the students must read what the other person wrote and continue the
story from there (after they get the next three slides).
Step 3: Show three slides. Ask the students to pick up where the original author
left off and write what kind of person the photographer is.
Step 4: Ask the students to circle the adjectives. If there are very few
adjectives written, ask the students to add adjectives. They can write over
others writing. After they finish writing, solicit adjectives from them (if you do
it before they finish writing, you might influence the others).
Step 5: Switch papers, show three slides and ask for another attribute (e.g.:
Profession, Political Beliefs, etc). Ask the students to circle another part of
speech, such as the adverbs. Again, have them edit their papers, adding adverbs.
Then solicit responses.
There are a lot of variations on this and you really go far with this. Don't
have a slide projector? No problem, get a collection of interesting things such as
a Oil filter wrench which doesn't obviously convey its purpose and put them in a
bag. Say you found the bag and are trying to find the owner. Please, don't be
mediocre and just put in a banana and ask you students to write about a banana.
At the end, after they read the compositions, tell the students where you
took the pictures and why you found the pictures interesting.

A writing exercise for intermediate and above. Students sit in a circle. They
need a piece of paper. Tell students that they are to think of a serious
question that they really want to know the answer to. Ask them to write the
question at the top of the paper and be sure they dont sign their names.
Draw a circle around the question. Pass their paper to the right. Answer the
question on the paper they received in writing. Allow only about 2 minutes or
so per answer. When most seem finished pass the paper to the right again.
Continue passing and writing until all have answered all questions and have
received their own paper back again. Read answers and discuss. This is also a
good way for the teacher to participate and get feedback to a question about
the classs feelings about any teaching issue.

A TIME CAPSULE. Displaying a plastic container, tell the students that it is

going to house your class time capsule. Then I distribute to them four sheets
of paper, at the top of each there is a different subject heading, such as
Current Events, Sports, the Arts, and Life in a University etc. Each student
writes 2 to 3 sentences on each of the topic papers, then passes on to the
next student. After everyone finishes, you can photocopy their papers (for
correction and return) and ceremoniously place the originals in the plastic
bottle. It will be buried someplace on the campus.

VARIOUS REVIEWS

Two teams of students, each person has cards from a set with adverbs of
frequency (sometimes, never, only once, etc). Nobody knows who has which
kind of card. One person from team A asks person on team B a question,
trying to get them to respond with the adverb they have on their card. So, if
you are on team A and have the card NEVER, you will ask a student from
team B: How often do you speak English at home? Hopefully s/he will say
never and you will get a point for my team. If not, then a person from team
B repeats process and so on. The winners can get a prize like a piece of
candy, and the losers can do some terrible deed, like throw the candy
wrappers in the trash or clean the blackboard, etc.

This is a very simple music/listening idea. Take the lyrics of a song and cut
them into individual line strips. Make the font big. A good idea is to use a
popular song that is relatively repetitive on TV/radio. Clear off the table and
spread out the lyric strips on the table. Play the song first without the
students doing anything but listening and enjoying. The second time you play
it, the students stand up and collectively try to order the strips correctly
down the center of the cleared-off table. It may take a few times through
the song to get it all done correctly but you will find the level of participation
high and the focus clearly on listening accuracy. Finally, choose songs
appropriate to the level.

The game TABOO is a great way to improve vocabulary and fluency. The idea
of the game is that one student has a card with a word which his/her
classmates have to identify. The player with the card can only use speech to
describe this word, and may not use key words listed on the card - they are
TABOO! You can make your own cards, listing taboo words to the level and
culture of your students. You can also divide your class into two teams for
the competition.

Use the well-known game STOP in order to make students reviewing

vocabulary. Draw a chart on the board, showing as much columns as the fields
you want (e.g. sports, animals, etc). Add two more columns: one for points and
the other for letters. You can leave two or three subjects to be chosen by
students. The game starts picking up a letter from a bag (this is easy to do).
Students have to fill a word for each category. The first one, who has
completed ALL the columns, says STOP. And the others have to stop writing.

At this point all answers are checked. Original ones are scored twice than
shared ones, and the ones that only one student has, are scored three times.
A winner is who scored more points after a round.

An ABC game whereby students write headings such as ANIMALS,

COUNTRIES, FOOD, SPORTS, TRANSPORT, FAMOUS PEOPLE etc (about
6), and then one person starts saying A, B, C, D, E until the next person
tells them to stop. They then write down an answer to each topic starting
with that letter. The first person to complete the line says STOP and they
mark it. Ten points if its original and 5 if it's the same as anyone elses. And
then continue on. Topics can be simple or more complicated depending on the
level.

Make a three by three grid and play TIC-TAC-TOE. You can use pictures of
whatever key vocabulary you have been teaching, i.e. clothing. Put 9
different pictures on the grid. Use coloured buttons or make your own X and
0 markers. To place a marker, the student must correctly name the item in
box he or she wants to take. Change the 9 items after a round to practice
other vocabulary

VERB TIC-TAC-TOE. The class is divided into two teams. Put a TIC-TACTOE grid on the board and put in tricky irregular verbs in the infinitive form.
Students have to make a sentence in the past using the verb. The other team
must either accept or not accept the sentence; if they accept the team gets
a X or an O in the space where the verb came from. If the other team does
not accept they must make a new sentence, not necessarily coming from the
same location. The first team to get 3 Xs or Os diagonally, horizontally or
vertically wins. The game can be adapted to various grammar points. You can
also play it with modal auxiliaries or even adverbs for more advanced groups
(still, yet, ever), or the ever popular phrasal verbs.

Here's a great game to review just about anything - vocabulary, grammar,

etc. Let's say after working on a certain topic such as HEALTH, you want to
review Yes/No questions with do and don't - you draw a large TIC-TACTOE grid on the board. In each box, hang up a large visual such as a picture
of a person with a headache, stomachache, fever, etc. You'll need 9 visuals in
all. Divide the class into 2 teams "X" and "O". Number each box 1-9. Go over
the pictures first. Then flip a coin to see which team goes first. In order to
receive the "X" or the "O" for the box they have chosen, the teams must
answer your question correctly. Lets say a student chooses box 5; it has a
visual of a person with a fever. You ask the student, Do you have a

stomachache? The student must respond, No, I don't in order to win that
box for his of her team. You keep alternating between the teams until one
team has TIC-TAC-TOE, or it is a draw. After a team wins a box, remove the
visual and put an "X" or and "O" in that box.
You can play this game to review just about anything - from vocabulary to
prepositions of place, or from simple Yes/No questions to really anything else
you can think of.

There is a commercial children's game called "GUESS WHO". Each player has
a grid in front of them that has about 25 faces on individual flip down
frames. There are also a group of loose cards that match with the faces on
the grids. Each player chooses one of the cards. The object of the game is to
determine which character the other person has by asking questions
pertaining to what the characters look like. It is a good reinforcer of the Do
you have, Does s/he have, Is s/he wearing and vocabulary pertaining
to the area above the neck. In the heat of the moment, students may
forget to use the target language, so you can put the phrases on the board as
reference.

SENTENCE AUCTION (idea is noisy). Material Needed: Sentence List. A bag

of dry beans (or other counters).
Compile a list of sentences containing frequent student errors. Mixed
in with these sentences, are grammatically correct sentences. Number the
sentences. Photocopy the list for all students. The length of the list depends
on the time allotted. Divide the class into small groups of mixed ability. Give
all students a copy of the list. Give all groups an equal amount of dry beans in
a container. Explain that you are going to auction off each sentence
individually. Give a specific amount of time for discussion before auctioning
each sentence. Each group must reach agreement among all members before
bidding so one person cant dominate. Accept bids from the various groups.
The issue is simply to decide as a group whether or not the sentence is
grammatically correct and if so bid on it. Bids should be for correct
sentences only. The highest bidder wins the sentence IF it is correct. If not
correct, the bid is fortified. The winner is the group with the highest
number of correct sentences AND the highest number of beans.

Oral Charades OCCUPATIONS AND EMOTIONS on slips of paper: one each

per student. Have students draw papers from a hat (or two) and have them
describe the emotion and the job on the papers without using these words.
The rest of the class must guess emotion and the occupation, e.g. Happy
Postman, Frustrated Teacher.

You need a copy of the popular poster, How are you feeling today? Make a
handout with three columns headed Words, My Guess, and Actual. First
the students try to guess the meanings of the words (from the poster) as a
homework assignment; then they fill in the actual meanings. Then give them a
photocopy of the poster with the words blanked out to match the words to
the faces. Then give them a copy of the poster with the words and for they
could compare their answers.

To encourage your students to keep their own vocabulary records, help them
learn the words you cover in class, try keeping a class set of vocabulary
cards. You can use index cards or just slips of paper. On the one side the
students write the word, and on the other - the meaning (translation, English
definition, part of speech, picture, pronunciation points etc. - at the end of
the course discuss what constitutes a helpful meaning of new words). These
cards are then kept in a box/envelope by the teacher, or ideally in the
classroom where the students can access them. In various points during the
course, use the cards in revision activities, perhaps at the beginning or the
end of lessons. Students can test each other, play games, use (e.g. five) of
the words each in a story, options are many other activities.

You can play a game called AMNESIA with your conversation class. The way it
works is to have cards with famous names on them, like Madonna, and each
student gets a card, but CANNOT look at it! The task of the students is to
break up into groups or pairs and try to tell each other what the identity is!
Once someone had "remembered" his/her identity, hand over a new one, and
s/he had to start over!

GO TO THE MOUNTAINTOP Grammar of questions and answers. If your

students have trouble with Is it? It is, especially understanding that the
syntax reverses from question to answer, try to use this idea. Draw a
mountain on the board. The bottom level of the mountain says IS, the second
level of the mountain IT, and the top level can say anything. The point is, to
go up a mountain to ask a question (draw a guru at the top of your mountain,
if you want), you have to first pass IS, then IT, of course doing this with
rising intonation. To go down the mountain, one passes IT, then IS. Thus, you
will be able to teach the inverted grammar of questions and their intonation
at the same time.

Heres an idea for those of you who also love mind twisters and creative
thought development An integrated journal book called "Brain Candy" can

help you. In this book, students are able to do personal writing in the front
(e.g. current issues, personal reflections, poetry, a letter to you, etc.) The
back of the book should be reserved for their "Brain Candy" section. This is
where you together can explore different solutions and patterns to various
"problems" and situations. You will be able to creatively explore not only the
English language, but also more importantly different and diverse means of
thinking.

When teaching nations, nationalities, and languages, drill students using this
pattern: The Koreans speak Korean in Korea; The Americans speak
American English in America. Then generalize to The Swiss speak German,
French, Italian, and Romansch in Switzerland. This way the students
associate the three learned elements and don't need to just memorize a list.

You can convert a board game into a vocabulary learning game. At the
previous day teach the students a reasonable amount of words. Then the
next day do an overview quickly, but also introduce the game. Divide the
students in small groups and give one person in the group a word to act out
and let the others guess the word, but also write it on a piece of paper. The
piece of paper should also have rows and columns where the teacher can
incorporate a theme. Lets say the word is sister. You can put on the piece
of paper prior to the game a column that asks for the name of the students
sister, the colour of her hair, etc. This always proves to be fun since the
students think of it as fun rather than a lesson and actually they learn more
than just the new words, but also learn to socialize and speak English with
more confidence. You might want to use volunteers or assistants to monitor
each group.

You might use popular music videos and cassettes with your classes. You can
discuss what the song is about, or rewrite the lyrics in a new tense, or even
sing it. Ask the students to choose the song, in that way you will be sure they
are interested in it. Best of all they remember what theyve learnt because
they hear the song outside the classroom as well.

Why not ask your students to take YOU on a field trip? You can have the
students work as a team or students can individually be responsible for a
portion of the trip. This gives the students a chance to show off their own
town, and be the expert on familiar territory. It also introduces you as the
teacher to places and facts in and about the town you are in which you may
never have otherwise looked at or realize.

Try this game. Make various cards (at least 28 for a group of four) with
simple objects (balls, cats, mice, etc) and place them in various positions
relative to larger objects (cars, tables, sofas, etc). Keep the number of
objects to four. The starting card can be anything, but the following card
must have the same preposition or object in order to lay it on the previous.
E.g., the first card is The cat is on the table. The second card must have a
cat or the smaller object must be on the larger object (The ball is on the
sofa). This game can be expanded by making the person who lays the card on
the table ask the next person, Where is the to which the respondent must
answer correctly to place his card on the table. The winner is the first
person to shed herself of all her cards.

Try playing TEAM PICTIONARY! Divide the class into three or four teams.
In turn, a member from each team comes to the board. Give the student a
vocabulary word either in writing, or for students that can't read, just
whisper it in their ear. Then the student has 1 minute to draw the word you
gave them (it doesn't have to be a thing, it can be whatever you want). That
persons team shouts out guesses. You have to make sure that the kids dont
cheat and tell their teammates the word in their native language! Then, if
after 1 minute the team cant guess the word, the person stops drawing, and
the other teams, each get one guess.

Students are usually very interested in the life of their teacher. A good way
to share information about you is to bring your photo albums into class. Let
each student choose a photo. They then think of three questions to ask about
each photo. Give them the answers and pair them up. They then tell their
partner about the photo and exchange photos. They then change partners
and share the information they learned about the new photo. You can change
partners several times. Its fun to ask questions about the photos at the end
of the session because sometimes the information the last student has is
different from the information you gave out.

GO FISH. You can set up an activity gamecards that have pictures on them.
For example, pictures with sports like baseball and hockey. The students
then ask each other a set question. Like Are you playing baseball? The
other student replies, Yes, I am" if they have the card. When the student
has 4 cards that are the same he places them on the table. The student who
has no cards wins.

These same cards that you use to play GO FISH can be used for those
students not yet familiar with the vocabulary or not at the production stage
in a game called SLAP. Divide students in pairs or groups of three. Shuffle
and place face up these picture cards in the middle of the students.
Students must sit with their hands at their sides. The teacher then says the
sentence, I like to play basketball. The students must slap the picture card
that displays basketball. The student who slaps the card first gets to keep
the card. After all the cards are described, the student with the most cards
wins.

A quick no resource activity that can be easily adapted. Give the students
an empty chart with about 4 headings at the top of the page. Depending on
what you want to use this exercise for, the headings can be varied. These are
some suggestions: NAMES, COUNTRY, PROFESSION/OCCUPATION,
SPECIAL TALENTS, etc. Students have to go around one at a time and give
their own information. When they are not giving their own info, they must be
listening carefully to the students in order to get their charts filled in. Not
only does it reinforce name learning; students can practice listening,
speaking, reading and writing skills. They also practice asking for repetition
and clarification. You can ask question at the end to check if the information
is correct.

WHAT'S THAT SOUND? It can be used on any level, for many purposes. It
consists of a tape with sounds, and four boards of pictures of the things that
make those sounds. When the tape is played, the student puts a coloured
chip on the picture of the sound maker on his board. The game can be played
like BINGO, with the winner being the first one to fill in the card.
There are only 36 sounds on the tape, but they are played in random
order, twice on each side of the tape. You can photocopy the cards, if you
need more than the four cards. Make a master list for yourself, so that you
always know what sound is coming next. You can stop the tape and talk about
the sound, or the spelling of the word, or to make sentences, or even to chat
about the topic. You can also make lists of the words for the pictures and
the sounds, as well as related words the students might use to make
sentences about the topics. At the end of the lesson they can take the lists
and the pictures and the sentences and any other additions they made, home
with them for study. It is a very flexible game and can be used as a jumpstart by more advanced students for writing paragraphs or short stories.

HANG MAN. Another way to improve upon this favorite game is, instead of
providing blanks for just one word, providing blanks for an entire sentence. It
could even be a sentence about a student in your class or about yourself.

The game WORD SHARK is a version of Hangman involving a man falling into
the jaws of a shark instead of a man being hung, the object of the game
being to guess the right word or expression before he meets his death. To
make this exercise a game, put letter blanks next to the appropriate level of
the mountain, with the question letter blanks on one side and the answer
letter blanks on the other (questions go up the left side, and answers come
down the right side). The man who falls toward the shark is a mountaineer
with a walking stick, and the shark is in a lake at the bottom of the mountain.
This is especially helpful for the students to drill in where and when the verb
goes, and where the pronoun goes (up: Is -- a man? down: -- is a man). Note
that this can be done with plural verbs (Are they toys? They are toys.) And,
of course, pronouns other than "it." Note also that with the game, you can
combine grammar, spelling, and intonation in one fun activity.

WHEEL OF FORTUNE. Think of a phrase and put it on the board as blank

spaces (_ _ _ _). Vowels cost $1000 dollars and $1000 to solve. The class is
divided into two. Decide who goes first. One student comes up and sticks his
hand in the bag you are holding. In the bag there are 30 cards; 15 are dollar
amounts (ex. $100) as well as 2 MISS A TURN cards, 4 BANKRUPT cards (a
skull and crossbones), 1x2 (doubles current amount), and 1/2 card (divides
amount in half). The 15 cards are various task cards that the student (or
team) must do to receive the dollar amount on the card. Some of the tasks
are:

1. balloon burst the

student chooses one of
three balloons which
have amounts in them
(one of which has a
minus
amount),
and
bursts the balloon;
2. group song;
3. solo song;
4. ball toss;

5. backward
number
recital particular times
limit;
6. animal recital (time)
7. pushups;
8. envelope choice;
9. picture;
10. charades;
11. balance acts, etc.

If the student completes the task, they get the dollar amount and their
team chooses a letter. If the letter is in the phrase, they get to go again; if not,
their turn is over. The team with the highest point total at the end of the class
wins.

If you are studying English as a foreign language in a place where it is

difficult to find any good partners to practice English, why not speak to
speak English to yourself whenever you have time. Talking to yourself is very
effective on various reasons. And the most important is that you do not to
worry about making mistakes. You can try again and again you are satisfied
with your expression. You can consult dictionaries, if you think it's necessary,
before you actually speak out. You can control your vocabulary, grammar, and
topics, as you like. You can check your understanding of what you've just
learned.