Icebreakers for Teens One of the first steps in forming a group is having the participants find commonality, and you can do this with icebreaker games. Teenagers often find icebreakers a fun way to introduce themselves, especially if they are self-conscious about speaking in front of a group. Top Ten Icebreakers for Teens You can use the following icebreakers for teens as written, or you can alter them to fit the number of participants you have or the theme of the group. #1 Human Bingo Take a pile of note cards, and write a teen's name and a question on it. #2 Teen Interviews Divide the teenagers into pairs. #3 Two Truths One Lie Have each teen tell the group two truths and one lie. #4 What Am I? Write an item on a note card for as many teens as you have. #5 Create a Story Start to tell a story, but don't finish it. #6 Common Personality Game Make up some personality questions and either pass out a sheet of paper with them on there or write them down on a dry erase board, paper easel or chalkboard. Post a comment
Conversation Questions for the ESL/EFL Classroom If this is your first time here, then read the Teacher's Guide to Using These PagesIf you can think of a good question for any list, please send it to us. Home | Articles | Lessons | Techniques | Questions | Games | Jokes | Things for Teachers | Links | Activities for ESL Students Would you like to help? If you can think of a good question for any list, please send it to us. If you would like to suggest another topic, please send it and a set of questions to begin the topic. Copyright © 1997-2010 by The Internet TESL Journal Pages from this site should not be put online elsewhere.Permission is not required to link directly to any page on our site as long as you do not trap the page inside a frame.
Agree or disagree (and why?) Scaffolding discussions for quiet students Some of my new classes this term have students who either whisper, speak in L1 or stay completely silent during speaking activities (even at int/upper int level). Part of this reluctance to speak seems to stem from having no knowledge or strong opinions about the topics being discussed, or not having enough time to think about an answer before a more confident student dominates the conversation. This activity was designed for quiet and shy students by helping them start from expressing a single opinion to engaging fully in a debate. This activity includes two sets of worksheets for Intermediate and Upper-intermediate classes which can be downloaded here as a powerpoint file or as a PDF. The following plan is based on an intermediate level class of 10 to 12 students. Stage 1 – Agree or disagree The students are given a handout with 12 statements. In this example the statements are all in the passive to revise the grammar from the previous lesson.
List of Conversation Topics | Conversation starters One of the most frustrating things I have ever experienced around a girl, is if I and her run out of things to talk about. Since you found this post I assume you know what I’m talking about, and maybe you are interested in learning how to avoid awkward silence. I’m thinking about the teeth pooling moments where the awkward silence just takes over the situation, you are just sitting their smiling while desperately in your mind scrambling for something just mildly interesting say, but you just can think of anything, you mind is a total black out, you can’t even remember your own name at this point. Finally you hear yourself saying something completely uninteresting, like: “sooo.. do you come here often”, she says “no its my first time!” And then the conversation dries up once again, the awkward silence start to eat you both up from the inside until one of you can’t stand the social pressure and thus make up some excuse to leave. Talk about Past Experiences: Talk about Current Experience:
Conversation Starters World 56 Creative Ways to Get to Know Your Class | OLE Community I recently attended the Building Learning Communities conference in Boston where I collaborated on a list of the top ideas to get to know your class with 5 other outstanding educators, including Catlin Tucker, the author of a fantastic blended learning and technology blog that you should definitely check out. Below is the list of ideas for getting to know your class that we started during the NoTosh crowdsourcing workshop and that I continued with the OLE team. I want to hear your creative ideas for how you get to know your students each year. Help us get to 100 and post your ideas in the comments. I’ll add to the list along the way. The Process If you want to try a crowdsourcing activity like this one, simply share a Google Doc with your peers and come up with as many ideas around a topic within 10 minutes as possible. The List: 56 Ways to Get to Know Your Class Tagged With: back to school, classroom activities, Classroom Management, collaboration, icebreakers, teaching
How to Start a Conversation When You Have Nothing to Talk About (with Examples) Edit Article Sample HintsStarting Your Conversation Edited by Anthony J. Colleluori, Jack Herrick, DrLynx, Ben Rubenstein and 164 others Starting a conversation to get to know someone or breaking an awkward silence can be very stressful. Ad Steps Starting Your Conversation 1Introduce yourself if necessary. 10Maintain the equilibrium. Tips Follow the lead that your listener is expressing. Warnings Make use of "please", "may I", "thank you", "could you" when someone is nice to you and when you want something. How to teach conversational lessons Hello, there. This post was written to share my favourite resources aimed at conversational lessons – both online and face-to-face. I hope you find it useful. The first minutes of the lesson are meant to arouse your students’ interest. In order to maintain your students’ interests, attempt to pick topics or situations that appeal to their age and if possible interests. After a topic is selected it is important to ensure that your student(s) do not write down their ideas. At this stage the teacher should monitor the student’s production, taking into account the content and form. At this stage focus on the content and probe your student’s comprehension and new language discovery. Give feedback – It is crucial to provide feedback that is oriented to the student’s goals. Give the opportunity for your student to do the speaking task again or do a similar task. And the sub-skills? Ready-made speaking lesson plans 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. Speaking lesson ideas 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Accept Yourself as You Are, Even When Others Don’t “What other people think of me is none of my business.” ~Wayne Dyer “You’re too quiet.” This comment and others like it have plagued me almost all my life. As a child and teenager, I allowed these remarks to hurt me deeply. When I did, the response was often, “Wow! This would make me just want to crawl back into my shell and hide. The older I got, the angrier I became. If only it were that simple, I thought. At 17, I thought I’d found the perfect solution: alcohol. When I was drunk, everyone seemed to like me. Another strategy was to attach myself to a more outgoing friend. Although I didn’t do it consciously, wherever I went I would make friends with someone much louder than me. Sometimes I just tried faking it. When I was 24, I began teaching English as a Foreign Language, and a month into my first contract in Japan, I was told my students found me difficult to talk to. It seemed that I was doomed. Or maybe not. What really matters is: do you think you need to change? And you know what?
How to Come Up with Good Conversation Topics (with Sample Topics) This article was co-authored by Lynda Jean. Lynda Jean is an Image Consultant and the Owner of Lynda Jean Image Consulting. With over 15 years of experience, Lynda specializes in color and body/style analysis, wardrobe audits, personal shopping, social and professional etiquette, and personal and business branding. She works with clients to enhance their image, self-esteem, behavior, and communication to facilitate their social and career goals. wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. How to Teach an English Conversation Class Conversation courses are usually taken by students who want to use and improve their speaking (and listening) skills. Their needs are different from students who take ordinary textbook-based classes. Run more often in non-English speaking countries, these classes cater to EFL (English as a Foreign Language) students, who have little contact with English in their day to day life. There is no right way to teach such classes, there is no textbook to guide lessons and no structure to follow. My experience: I have taught English conversation classes in Japan and Germany, and at times found them exceptionally challenging to prepare for and teach. Why take a conversation course? Students have many reasons to sign up for a class. When a teacher knows why students are attending, they can tailor lessons to meet students' needs. My students in Japan and Germany had four main reasons for joining an English conversation class. English for travel: English in the workplace: English for further study: Comments
What Annoying Situations Teach Us About Ourselves “Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves.” ~Carl Jung He was shorter than me with a mustache, and he was positioning himself in front of me, but just off to the side of the line. I sneaked a look at his boarding pass and it read B53. I checked in exactly 24 hours before the flight, specifically so I could be in the A group. Not only was he butting, he wasn’t even an A. He smiled at me. I was flying home to Oakland from Denver, and on the ride over something similar had happened. On that flight, it wasn’t clear who was a butter and who wasn’t, so I didn’t say anything. Here was the choice again, and a lousy choice it was, say nothing and feel like a chump, or say something and feel like an uptight agro-jerk. I went for choice B. “Excuse me sir, what number do you have?” I started to waiver and began explaining, “I, ah, just want to see where I should….” The line moved forward. I felt embarrassed. Notice you are triggered.
1,000 Conversation Questions: Designed for Use in the ESL or EFL Classroom One book. One hundred topics. One thousand questions. This is a teaching resource book you’ll keep coming back to again and again. Is this book for me? Do you teach high school, university, or adult students? If you answered yes to the above questions, then congratulations you are about to spend less time on your lessons. How can it save me time? Need a warm up activity to get students engaged in a topic? - Boom, done. Need an extra activity just in case you don’t have enough material? - No problem. Your text book a little lacking and you need more speaking time for your students? - This book has questions for common topics that ESL textbooks use. Need a lesson in a hurry? - Find an interesting topic in the book, find a related newspaper article or video, and you have yourself a decent 1 hour lesson. "Great Book For Conversation Topics in an ESL/EFL Classroom - Amazon Review from Sandie (Click to see more reviews) Time to make lesson planning less painful. Check out my other books:
Conversation Classes This is a guest post by Steve Krajewski from English Coach Online on the topic of national identity and gaining dual citizenship. Steve writes texts based on his own life experiences and shares them with students. His texts are packed with phrases and collocations that are common in spoken English. For this post, Steve decided to focus on a text called ‘A long time coming’. This text will enable students to discuss whether they’ve ever done a family tree, what they know about their ancestors and to what extent gaining dual citizenship would have an impact on their lives. Skills practiced include listening for gist, guessing the meanings of words from context and scanning the text for details. Download the teacher’s notes and the student handout below: Download the audio file for the text here: Long time coming audio. Student Handout A long time coming Obtaining Polish citizenship by descent is relatively straightforward. So – what do you think? relatives) country nationality before grandparents)