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.

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.

Extensive Reading: Voice Diary

This recipe works best if you combine it with Extensive Reading. It builds confidence and teaches reading, speaking, and listening
Encourage your students to make a voice diary with their cell phones. Its listed under the “Voice Memo” Feature. First you need to provide a high interest story to your students.

1.    Have them read the story once quietly
2.    Next read the story aloud and record it on their voice diary
3.    Then have them playback and listen while they read

And the best part of it is, the students can track their progress. If they keep at it for a couple weeks they can actually hear the difference. Its worked great with Tech students

Can be adapted to anything, if they see a funny or cool sign, they can read it and save.

This post was submitted by Jason K.

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.

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.

Provide the class with a list of topics (City living / Exercise / Learning English / being single).  Model whole class. The teacher is the Devil and the students the Angel.

1. The teacher (Devil) says why they are against the topic using 3 transitions to order the arguements.

2. The students (Angels) offer the advantages / for the topic, using transitions.

3. Do this a few times so students get the idea. Then they can do the same in pairs or small groups. Really works!

Here’s the handout explaining it. Get more on this presentation page…

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Story Dominoes is a great concept. Just get a lot of varying pictures. Cut them up and students in groups of three/four, use them to tell “random” stories.

One student turns over a card to begin. Then the next, turns over a card and continues. Lots of creativity involved.You can also extend this or make this into a writing activity. After telling the story, the students can collaboratively write the story using the pictures.

Here’s a nice handout of example pictures. Also, I’ve made a nice game – Story Dominoes. Find the ppt on EFL Classroom 2.0 HERE. Print the slides and use as a handout in class!

This post was submitted by David .

This post was submitted by C.J..

Write a simple sentence on the board. Students copy it.

Ex. The dog ran. 

Ask the students questions and the students after each question must rewrite the sentence, answering the question.

Ex. Where? The dog ran ………….

      What color of dog? The …….. dog ran to his mother

      How?  The black dog slowly ran to his mother

      How long?  The black dog slowly ran to his mother ……

      Why?  The black dog slowly ran to his mother for 30 minutes because ……

Afterwards, get students to read their creative sentences to the class and to each other. You’ll be amazed at how well they can do this and write.

Here’s an example of sentence stretching on powerpoint – from the Owl of Purdue’s writing lab.

This post was submitted by Jesse.