winkfun Mobile Phones in ELT | ELT Blog Mobile phones – or cell phones as the Americans like to call them – are often cited as a nuisance, a disturbance and a pest by teachers across the world. Not only in English Language Teaching but in every subject, educators battle on a daily basis against the disruptive presence of the mobile phone.Some schools have gone as far as to ban mobiles all together – tackling the problem by removing the cause from the classroom.Other schools have taken a subtle approach, encouraging learners to reserve their phone usage for break time and lunch time. But what about in ELT? Young Learners When teaching Young Learners, English Language Teachers often subscribe to practices most traditionally found in mainstream classrooms. Some teachers will put together class contracts with their learners; others will impose rules top-down; some schools will have clear signs in every classroom. Adult Learners The situation with adult learners is a little trickier. The Place for Mobile Phones Post-Scriptum Like this:
A Bollywood Style Song Lesson | A Journey in TEFL Nowadays there is a TV commercial of a fizzy drink that we talk a lot about. The dances used in the commercial is Bollywood style and we have just come across the original song on YouTube and it was not a surprise to find out that the song was from a Bollywood movie. The lyrics are in English but when I first listened I thought they were in Indian. Only when I focused, I caught the words. Then the idea emerged in my mind. Alas, it’s the end of year. You can use the Soup Song to 1. teach pronunciation, comparing the British or the American pronunciation with the one in the song. 2. talk about English as a Lingua Franca, even conduct a discussion on different pronunciations of English. 3. talk about different accents. You can try Lyric Race with your class. If you think moving in the class will be difficult because you have a big class, then maybe you can try the following activity with them 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Helbling Mind App Web 2.0, New Learning Technologies (and EFL) Free Technology for Teachers; free resources and lesson plans for teaching with technology written by Richard Byrne. Nik’s Learning Technology blog by Nik Peachey, for English Language teachers. EdTech Toolbox: a place to share e-learning and Web 2.0 tools for education. Computers and laptops in education are important only when used with good pedagogy. Digital content and creation is an important part of the process for educators in the 21st century. Using ICT in further education; free resources for teachers and students (Open Source, Freeware, Creative Commons); Patricia Donaghy. Ana María Menzes blogging on new media. Nik’s QuickShout; educational technology and ELT. Mark Brumley: educational technology. TEFL in general
ESL Warm Up Activities for Adults - Business English Resources Good warm ups for English class are fun but not a complete waste of time. Below are some activities that work well for business English classes. The Question Game This is a great warm up for getting students to practice asking questions. Students sit in a circle or around a table. To make it more difficult: To make this more challenging for upper intermediate or advanced groups, you can make students only ask a certain type of questions (Have you ever questions, second conditional questions, indirect questions, etc.) Describe the Word to a Partner The teacher writes vocabulary words on small pieces of paper. To make it more difficult: Using abstract nouns, phrasal verbs, adjectives, or adverbs makes this game a lot harder (words like “clever,” “determination,” “come up with,” etc.) Describe the Picture to a Partner Student A gets a picture. To make it more difficult: One great thing about this activity is that it works for all levels. Describe a Video Clip to a Partner The Expert Game Taboo
Lite Many Rivers To Cross… Engaging Learners Using Computer Tools And Mobile Apps - Lessons Here are a few more examples of specific tech tools that we can use in class Concordancing in the Classroom (redefinition / transformation) Lextutor Students use a concordancer to do guided analysis of grammatical forms (e.g. gerunds/infinitives) See Motteram (2013) for further info Taking Grammar Learning Online (augmentation / amplification) Quill Students use an online resource to build knowledge of grammar Expanding Reading Opportunities (augmentation / amplification) Read Theory Students complete computer-adaptive reading comprehension exercises Collaborative Writing & Discussion of Writing (redefinition / transformation) Google docs + Kaizena
Word Snap! There are many situations where it isn’t possible to use technology in the classroom. Tekhnologic lite is dedicated to the activities and plan B’s that can be used when things go wrong or when there just isn’t the time or the resources. Click here to view the previous post in the series. Word Snap is what I call this activity, but it is not a new idea and I am not the first person to write about it. I stumbled across a great post back in May 2013 via the Teaching English – British council Facebook page. Unfortunately, the original post isn’t available for me to link to, but I remember that it linked to this video and the author wondered how students would respond to the game in EFL classes. The video introduces a word game from the band OK Go. When I first watched the video, I thought that using the activity as it is described in the video would be a challenge for fluent speakers with a large vocabulary. So, I decided to use vocabulary sets. Sometimes a student will respond too late.
Actors, Directors and Prompters. There are many situations where it isn’t possible to use technology in the classroom. It can be because the classroom doesn’t have the necessary resources, or worse the technology has failed and you need a plan B. It may also be because you are covering a lesson and it can more effective to rely on low to zero-prep activities. I think most teachers have been in all these situations at one point or another, so I have been thinking for the last few months that I should start a tekhnologic lite section. Directors is a zero-prep activity that turns a role-play or dialogue into a more theatrical experience. This is an activity that I often use in classes because students have to think about body language and gestures, the intonation of their voice and encourages them to listen to instructions and ask for help. The script that you use is up to you. The dialogues I use are often taken directly from the course book I use. I would also tell the director to use this stem. “What’s my line?” Step One:
Gap Fill Exercises – Reviewing the answers with PowerPoint If you are teaching from a course book you are always going to come across a gap fill exercise. If you are teaching using music, you may come across a gap fill exercise asking students to complete the lyrics. If you are taking a language proficiency test you may be using practice papers that ask you to put the correct conjugation of the verb into the gap. If you have downloaded any language learning apps, the chances are some of the activities within them are going to be based on the gap fill exercise. There are many ways to spice up a gap fill exercises. You could try tearable sentences, which was my version of Peter Pun’s idea. Or using QR codes, which was something Martin Sketchley wrote about recently here, and something I tried and felt that it was a success in the classroom. Information Gathering exercises and running dictations also work really well to lift a gap fill exercise off the page. I don’t want to talk about these ideas too much, they are perhaps a post for another day.
Word Links: A Vocabulary Game | tekhnologic I am sure this activity goes by another name, but I have called it Word Links for the time being. I first saw this activity on a Japanese TV show called QSama, where two English words were shown on the screen and the contestants had to guess the connecting word. If you know this activity by another name, please let me know in the comments section. I thought this game would make a great vocabulary activity for the classroom, so I produced a few adaptations of it. This activity works particularly well for expanding vocabulary with compound nouns. Using board work to play Word Links has the advantage that is an extremely low-prep activity and it can be used as a way to review or expand vocabulary. The Activity: Write between 2-5 words around a circle or square on the board. Advantage: Low-prep and focuses around the language students are using rather than a pre-made list. Using a handout to play Word Links requires a bit more preparation, but has some advantages.
Word Jumble: Practicing sentence structures | tekhnologic It appears in several activity books and I have come across it in various course books as well. In ‘Five-minute activities’ (Penny Ur & Andrew Wright, Cambridge University Press) it is called Jumbled Sentences. I’ve known it as Word Jumble. I have used this activity a few times and I have tried several different ways of presenting it. It can be a useful activity as a first step to introducing key phrases or a dialogue. Word Jumble can be a good zero-prep activity, you only need a few sentences. Word Jumble in a grid Divide the board into a grid. The Activity: Students work together in pairs or small groups to order the words and reconstruct the sentences. Word Jumble using different colors If you have different color markers or chalk, write each sentence in different color. The Activity: Students work together in pairs or small groups to order the words and reconstruct the sentences. For example: If the class is divided into groups of four, each person in that group is given a color.
Informed Teachers: QR Codes in Education ? An innovative way The main purpose of this blog is to share how technology can be integrated with teaching and learning , making students more active in the process. Well, something which has been going on for a lot of mostly commercial and marketing uses is the QR code. The video below illustrates the QR Code experience : Have you ever heard about it ? Nowadays the Smartphone essential use is a reality. For instance, a practical example: Teacher divides the class into two groups and share part of the teaching point of the day , whatever it is with 50% of a group and 50% with another via the qr code. How does that work ? Rach
Snowballs! This is a fun way to get students relaxed while at the same time getting to know the students a little better. It also helps show them that learning (as they'll be learning about each other in this activity) can be lots of fun. And it's really easy: 1) Have the students write down at least 3 facts about themselves (or as many as you want to have them write down). 2) Instruct the students to crumple up the papers on which they have just written their facts on each other. 3) Then shock them by telling them that now, they get to have a one minute 'snowball' fight and let them stand up and throw the crumpled fact papers at each other for a minute. 4) At the end of the minute, students grab whichever snowball is closest to them. I've used this game as an ice breaker for 11th and 12th graders and they LOVE it because it's so completely different from what a teacher would normally let them do (i.e., go wild for a minute) and it gets them relaxed and laughing.
Four MS Word templates for making your own material! | tekhnologic If I am teaching in a classroom that only has a CD player, that doesn’t mean I can’t use technology to help me. That is the whole reason for technology, to make things easier and more efficient for us. As long as you have one computer, and one printer, you can design and customize material for your classes. So this week, I am sharing four word documents that I keep on my computer as templates. Feel free to download and use the templates if you want them. Create an A & B Dictation An A & B dictation is a great way to present an example dialog. This is template that I use. Click on A and B Dictation to download the word document, or visit the downloads page. When you open the document, type your conversation in the space provided. There are actually 3 columns. You can type A in the top and B at the bottom, however to save myself from going up and down the page, I type the whole conversation in Student A’s section. This is a common activity. After the activity is finished: Create Your Own Cards