Author: Teaching Recipes Staff

Especially for beginners – what I call “Body English” is a great technique. 

Start with letters / spelling and numbers.  

1. Bring a student to the front of the class.  

2. “Draw” a number or spell a simple … Read More ....

One of my all time teaching activities has been the use of Restauraunt ads and up coming events from an English language Newpaper-if not local you will have to make a simple map to help them out.

-first  What kinds … Read More ....

I used to play a game called Sentence Auction. Print up money from your home country and give each group of students the same ammount of money. I used to do $1000 in $10 and $20 bills. Then write a … Read More ....

This video is the BOMB! It is captivating, absorbing, a story par excellence but also SILENT! Yes, silent films are great for getting students to produce language — and after all is said and done, that most often is the … Read More ....

Doodle songs/videos are a great activity you can do with your class! They really promote contextualized learning and motivate students because you have a final product and of course – there is music!

Most enthusiastic language teachers “Go To Pieces”, meaning they literally use material that is in pieces and compels students to practice and communicate. At its heart, “pieces” is a way of teaching that puts communication at the core of language … Read More ....

The blank dialogue is a very “natural” teaching approach. Something intuitive about it. I used it in my early days of teaching – just pausing a dialogue on cassette tape and asking students to respond. You had to get skilled … Read More ....

Writing storybooks or making picture books is a great way to reinforce grammar and vocabulary. It also gives students confidence and pride in “producing” something visible and tangible to measure their English language learning experience.

There are several steps to … Read More ....

One great recipe is to play a video with vocabulary content. Not flashcards but something real and beautiful.  Then, students either write or speak or brainstorm all the vocabulary from the video in the specific category you mention. 

An example … Read More ....

Story chains are simple ways to keep students telling a story. Start a story and then students keep adding lines to continue. They can even be done with only words, students relating words to other words through association.

One higher … Read More ....