Disappearing dialogues is a very much used language teaching technique

1. Elicit and write the dialogue. Or use a prepared dialogue.

This post was submitted by James.

Last year, I asked my students to do the following project: CREATE YOUR ENGLISH GAME! It was a hard task, but so REWARDING!!!!!!! Because of that, I’ve just decided to share this interesting useful IDEA with other students and teachers. Let me tell you what you need …

 
1. Students have to make up everything: the rules of the game, the title, the instructions, the small cards, token, dices, and so on.

2. The teacher can ask them to write questions, short English tests on every card, challenges, bets, etc. These cards will make them review all the grammar constructions, vocabulary seen in every unit, etc.

 
3. The most important thing is they are going to learn and have fun!!! So, I encourage all of you to carry out this project with your students, they’ll never forget this enriching motivating task.

 
I hope you’ll enjoy it! PLEASE, IF YOU MAKE THIS PLAN WITH YOUR STUDENTS, CAN YOU TELL ME SO AND SHOW ME THEIR GAMES?

I’D LIKE TO SEE THAT THIS IDEA IS WORTHWHILE AND HELPS OTHERS IMPROVE ENGLISH. THANK U!

This post was submitted by valme.

The Six Steps:

1. Look at the word

2. Hear the word

3. Say the word

4. Spell the word

5. Write the word

6. Find the word

Here is how I use Six Steps:

1. Write the word on the board, have students point to it

2. Students cup their ears with their hands, you say the word

3. The students say the word back to you

4. Students spell the word outloud

5. On a small slip of paper, the students write the word

6. Hand out a summary of the story/article that the vocabulary applies to that you will be reading in class. Students are to use a highlighter to scan the sheet for the word.

7. Erase the word then write the next word on the board and repeat the cycle.

My students love this activity because it gets them invovled in their own learning!

This post was submitted by Rachel.

This lesson is ideal for pre/intermediate classes to practice both future tense and comperatives/superlatives.

First start with a quick discussion on music and the Ss’s favourite singers or bands etc.

Then, tell them they’re going to organize their own music festival- a very special one to their own taste. Give them the following points to think about preferably in pairs. (the focus is on the future tense)

-What kind of a music festival is it going to be? (pop,rock, jazz?)

-Where and when is the festival going to take place?

-What other activities are you going to organize?(stands for selling food, drink or camping areas etc.)

-How much is the entrance fee?

-Are you going to organize TV or radio interviews with singers/bands?if yes, which TV channels or radio channels?

And find an original name for the festival!

As a second stage (where they focus on comperatives and superlatives), ask them to choose the singers/bands to be invited to the festival. Give them some options like Rihanna, Coldplay, whoever..

Ask them to choose from the options stating their reasons why they want to invite those singers/bands. Give a model sentence like “we are going to invite Coldplay because we think that they are more interesting than X.” etc.

Then, ask the pairs to present their festivals and ask others to vote for the most interesting/original music festival, giving them an evaluation rubric.

As homework, you might ask them to prepare the poster of their festivals.

Good luck

Didem Yesil

This post was submitted by Didem Yesil.

1. Find a section of an unfamiliar song that the students have probably never heard.
2. Teach lyrics to the class using a powerpoint or handouts. Either way, lead the class through the song line by line and make sure they understand it.
3. Divide class into teams and tell them they have 10 minutes to make a song and dance using these lyrics. Tell the class they will have a blind vote at the end to see whose song and dnace were the best.
4. Have the blind vote at the end.
5. As a bonus, you can show a youtube video of the song to see what the “real” version is like.

Keep the lyrics short and simple if you’re trying this on the class for the first time. If it goes well, you can always give them more.

This post was submitted by Wondershot.

Objective – Depending on the level: Vocab. Building (Demographic Country Terms)

Describing a Country

Basic question formation

Procedure – Begin the class by drawing a big map of your country on the board.  Put some cities in, roads, mountains, etc (This should take less than a minute).  Ask the class what the country is called and what the thing you drew is (a map).  Write Country Name and Map at the top right corner of your board.  Now draw a really bad outline of your students’ country.  They should laugh.  Make a 2nd attempt.  It can be better, but should still be very flawed.  If a student hasn’t already taken the marker from you, give it to a student and have them draw the outline.

Now the lesson begins.  You want to elicit the words Capital City, Population, Language, Religion, Geography, and Climate.  Do this by giving examples.  For example, in America we have Washingting D.C.; in Turkey it’s Ankara.  What is this?  İn America we speak English, in Turkey you speak Turkish.  This is the…?  It should take less than 5 minutes to elicit all the words.  If you have a higher level class you can include things like Type of Government, Major Industries, etc.

Now tell the class that they are going to create their own country.  Demo this on the board.  I usually draw a big beer bottle and then label it Beeristan.  My capital city is Barsville.  My language is Beerish.  The religion is Alcoholism.  It’s a magical country where beer rains from the sky every weekend.  You get the point.

Put the students in groups of two and have each make their own country.  As an initial task give them 2 minutes to write a name and draw a map then stop.  This allows you to check for certain that they understand.  You wouldn’t believe how many students, especially at lower levels, even after the demo and CCQ’s will still start to draw their own country.  You can ensure they are making a new country.

After about 8 minutes come back together as a class.  With lower levels you will have to elicit the questions as a class and put the structures on the board.  With higher levels you can dive right in.  Have each group show their country and have the other groups ask questions about it.  With lower levels this will be rather formulaic although you should encourage extra questions.  With higher levels they will often run with it.  If they don’t, ask a few questions as examples such as, Where do alcoholics go to pray?  How do people get to work if everyone’s drunk all the time?  Is there a lot of tourism to Beeristan? Etc.

If this somehow doesn’t last an hour you can make some groups tourists and they have to go from group to group to hear about each country’s virtues and then decide on which one to go to for vacation.

You can also follow this up with a lesson on modals of permission and obligation by having them create the laws for their country.

- stolen lesson from Steal This Lesson post. Read about it HERE.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

This is a great way to practice the future tense and learn about each other. Adapted from Jill Hadfield’s “Communication Games”.

1. Ask students about their resolutions. Put the target language on the board – “This year, I will / I resolve to / I’m going to ……….

2.  List some of the common resolutions as you discuss.

3.  Students write down 3 resolutions and then go around the class surveying classmates. They must find as many classmates with the same resolution as them.

4. Finally, why not sing Auld Lang Syne!

Here is a handout that students can use to check off their resolutions prior to “hunting”. You might also list language of agreement like – “So am I ” / “Me too!”  / “Same here”

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

PASS THE CHICKEN!

The prop is the most important element to this game : ) To begin, all students sit in a circle. Select one person to be IT. That person holds the rubber chicken. The teacher or a “caller” says to the person holding the chicken, “Name five animals. Pass the chicken!” As soon as the caller says, “Pass the chicken,” the person holding the chicken passes it to the right. Students quickly pass the chicken around the circle. If it returns to the original holder before he or she can name five animals, the holder is still IT. Otherwise, the person holding the chicken when IT finishes listing five animals is the new IT.

A nice part of this game is it really doesn’t matter if the topics are easy or hard… it’s pretty random who is going to be IT next : ).

Some Easy Topics

• animals
• fruit
• famous people
• songs
• books
• clothing
• weather words
• holidays
• countries
• languages

Anything that fits your curriculum!

This post was submitted by Ellen.

First, come to class with some pictures you’ve cut out of a newspaper or magazine. Nice gift ideas. Tell the students it’s Christmas and walk around the class giving items. Stop at a student, handing them the picture and say, “Merry Christmas! Students if advanced must reply with more than “you’re welcome” and should use one of the ways to say “Thank you’ ,you’ve put on the board. Keep going around the class until students get the hang of it…..

Next, give students in groups, one of these pictures ( from Hadfields Adv. Communication Games) and put them in pairs. They must make a list of students names in the class and write down one of the gift items beside it. They may have to ask you the names of the gifts or look them up in the dictionary.

Finally, when they have decided who is getting what gift, give the signal and students will walk around the class using the target language and giving gifts.

To conclude, ask students what they got and which present they liked best (and why!). Everyone in the class will feel great. If by some chance, some students are not getting many gifts, give them some from your magazine collection. This will make them feel great.

This post was submitted by Jerry.

1. Watch The Great Toy Robbery. Put students in pairs and have one watch the screen, the other look away. Partner A describes what he is watching to Partner B who can’t see. Switch part way through.

2. Watch again and pause, noting vocabulary (or make a worksheet). Discuss and point it out in context.

3. Students retell the story or retell as a writing exercise. Lots of other creative extension ideas possible too!

This post was submitted by DD.