Students need to know how long a task will take and a timer is a perfect way to let them know! Especially for writing exercises and tests.

Further, I’ve even seen teachers use it as a classroom management tool. Simply set the time for the length of the class. If students are off task – pause the timer. Students won’t be able to leave the class until the timer has finished so they will be sure NOT to want the timer to stop! Might work for you however first try other things!

You can get timers of all sorts, for your computer, HERE on EFL Classroom 2.0. This is a quick download of the one shown here but also try this groovy online timer with music! I really like the powerpoint timer on EFL Classroom because you can change the background picture to a class picture. Cool!

If you don’t have a computer in class, just use a “timer box” and write down the time left in the box, every so often.

Now get ticking!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Simply generate with the class your vocabulary list. It can be recent vocabulary from your book/lesson/unit.

Then, the teacher describes one thing/place/person on the board and students try to guess. Only one guess / student or team ( or you will have some students just saying a hundred guesses!). Erase or mark out each correct guess and play until all have been guessed.

Finally, let the students write down the vocabulary and do the same in small groups or pairs.

Other variations include snap (where the teacher says a word and students must be the first to “snap/slap” the word) , pictionary (some students draw and others guess the vocab item), charades (students act and other students guess the vocab item).

For more vocab groups like the above , see these powerpoints  Lots of great wordlists in picture form…

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Backdoor is a technique where in pairs students sit back to back. One student watches the screen and describes the action. The teacher can write vocab. on the board to prompt student talk. Continue for a few minutes then pause the video and the pairs switch positions.

Continue and then watch the end of the video together, describing without the sound.

This works well with 3-7 min videos and more so if they are funny!

I use Mr. Bean and get them all in this great Mr. Bean player.

For more ideas about using short videos, see my recent blog post. Lots there…

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

So the recipe is to get a wide selection of reading for students. (you can get lots of printable books on EFL Classroom resources – click Reading!). Students for 5-10 minutes every class select a book or magazine, comic  or newspaper (I used to bring in the Metro from the subway, in stacks. My ESL students loved them!). They then quietly read. That’s all. No book reports, no presentations or talk. Just enjoying the books/reading!

IMPORTANT! The teacher should read with the students!

Track your student’s “DEAR” reading by getting them to log their reading into a notebook, noting title, time spent and how they felt (just a happy, blank or sad face will do).

This post was submitted by david.

2 Way Tasks are a staple of English Language Teaching.

In the typical 2 way task, each student (A and B) have some information and some information missing. they must communicate to fill in their missing information.

Here are some , examples of 2 way tasks, I put together. Very teacher friendly, just photocopy and go! But make sure you model whole class by giving students some information, putting some blanks on the board and asking students for the information, modeling the “target language” or that language the students will use to perform the 2 way task.

Another caution. Make sure to train your students to NOT look at each others sheet. It is a communicative activity, NOT a copy and get the task done thing!!!!! You’ll have to be firm about this but it will pay off with student learning. Maybe get students to put up atlases or larger books between themselves or get them to sit back to back!

This post was submitted by david.

The best and easiest way to “teach” a story is to tell it through prediction. Get the students in a comfortable area if possible and read them the book, showing the pictures. You can also use all the great stories on EFL Classroom 2.0, if you have a computer and screen.

Start telling the story and at a good point stop and ask, “What’s going to happen next?” Let students tell each other or the class. Then continue to see if they are right. Stop again, and ask them to predict….continue doing this until the end of the story.

A good extension would be to have the students rewrite the story in their own words. Or stop the story before the end and have them write their own ending! Then share the “real” ending. 

A great story for this, available is The Eyebrow Story. Students love this one!

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

All the activities are basic EFL activities that help teachers personalize lesson content and allow students to talk and learn English through their own lives and experiences. This is a crucial part of the language acquisition process….

Enjoy the viewing and find more like this on EFL Classroom 2.0 HERE.

This post was submitted by David.

Basically review the content and vocabulary by having the students repeat your sentences and perform an action at the same time. ex. It is raining! (action – hands/fingers moving down). You can also play some pretty cool games with TPR and see one in this video. Also, make sure to have students lead the class (don’t you do all the work!).

This paper is an excellent overview of TPR as a language teaching method. www4.ujaen.es/~gluque/TPR_Presentation.pdf

This post was submitted by David.