EFL Teaching Recipes » tip

Pass the Pen!

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:48:12 +0000

Conversation is the “art of exchange”. Students learn English but very seldom really learn the art of “holding a conversation” and making it a 2 way exchange. This technique helps this.

Any time students are performing an activity: dialogue, discussion, task etc… train them to “pass the pen”. After speaking, the student passes the pen to someone else. If you have the pen, you then must “add to” the activity. It’s your turn.

The simplist way to introduce this to students is to put some questions on the board or in a worksheet. Students randomly ask a question and “pass the pen”. That student replies and asks a question and “passes the pen”. You might even just use the “Spin the Question” game on EFL Classroom 2.0.

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

Map it – Vocab. Technique

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 11:08:51 +0000

I learned this just recently in a staff workshop (shows the power of peer learning/sharing!). thanks Rona!

Whatever vocabulary list / word bank you have – you can map it! Yes, just ask the students to draw a local map or a floor plan of a house or even a zoo layout.

Next, ask the students to put each vocab item in a particular place. Ask them to explain their choices.

ie. Colors. I put blue in my livingroom because it is where I like to think and feel blue!

Students can discuss their choices and why they put X in Y. It works like a charm and even fosters critical thinking skills. A wonderful technique for learning / acquiring vocabulary (because we know we acquire vocab. better if we connect it to an object / place).

This post was submitted by David Deubelbeiss.

2 Way Tasks

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:38:35 +0000

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.