Language Teacher Toolkit: 5 great zero preparation lesson ideas When the pressure is on and there are only so many hours on the week, you need a repertoire of zero preparation go-to activities which promote input and/or practice. Here are five you might well find useful. 1. We know that listening is the most important yet often neglected skill for language learning. You tell the class you are going to recount what you did last weekend and that they have to make notes in English. You then make some true or false (maybe not mentioned too) statements in the target language about what you said in your account. 2. Pupils work in small groups. This is definitely an "output" task but one which can encourage students to speak fearlessly with an ear on fluency rather than accuracy. 3. For intermediate to advanced level. • My brother has twin sons. • I have three cats. • If I’d been a boy, I would’ve been called George. • My family was brought up in Spain. • My favourite movie is The Sound of Music. • My father was an extra in Star Wars. 4. What's her name? 5.
Russell Stannard | Award-Winning Educational Technologist Ask Answer Add - A Speaking Activity to Help Learners Maintain a Natural Conversation Ask Answer Add - A Speaking Activity to Help Learners Maintain a Natural Conversation Ask Answer Add is one of my favorite speaking activities and requires no resources in class. It is a very straightforward exercise and I’m sure it will really help your learners build their speaking skills and learn the invaluable skill of maintaining a conversation. The premise is quite simple, and it is suitable for any level of learner. Ask The idea behind the activity is very simple. What’s your favorite food? Answer Start with just one question and let the learners know that they are going to ask this to their partner. A. Add The student answering the question should then add some extra information. A. Ask This extra information now gives student A something to comment on or to probe for more information. A. Answer Now student B has another question to answer and another opportunity to keep the conversation going. A. What do you think?
Nik's QuickShout Most Influential Images – elt sparks “Pictures can create an atmosphere where change is possible.” – James Nachtwey The 100 most influential photos published in a website by time magazine is the perfect SPARK to talk about the power of images. Striking and powerful images engage students towards deeper discussion where they not only describe the image, but also speculate on the stories behind them. This lesson culminates in a task where students choose an image from the internet and talk about why it is influential and representative of 2016. CONTEXT – Image spark: Show Ss the ‘Man on the Moon’ image (see above). Create a context with a Q&A session about the photo (pair/group work).Write question prompts on the board – Who? Suggested questions: What do you see? Step 2: Ask Ss to complete the sentence in pairs: (after a couple of minutes of brainstorming, I alowed students to use dictionaries) This photo is one of the most _____________ images of all time. Step 3 – Return to context: Step 4: Choose 5 images from the following website:
Apps to update your teaching skills | LTSIG Share this..... Teacher’s toolbox series Teachers blogging about their favourite tools By Angeles Hergenreder Do you feel your teaching skills need an upgrade? Have you considered the help of smartphones to do so? Their usage is making a huge impact on our lives and that, of course, includes how and where we teach and learn. Getting started An application or app is a type of software designed to perform a specific task such as playing a game, adding special effects to photos or collecting content from the Internet. Phones come with many apps already installed. You can run apps on your computer too. Educational apps There are many educational apps available to study English. While searching for educational apps to expand my students’ exposure to the language, I found the British Council apps. What I did with the apps was to assign some exercises to my students as homework and ask them to take screenshots to show their results. Noneducational apps Beautiful QR Code Generator Instagram Mindly Sing!
25 ideas for using audio scripts in the ELT classroom | Oxford University Press Philip Haines is the Senior Consultant for Oxford University Press, Mexico. As well as being a teacher and teacher trainer, he is also the co-author of several series, many of which are published by OUP. Today he joins us to provide 25 engaging and useful classroom activities for language learners using audio scripts. Many ELT student books come with audio scripts at the back. However, these are sometimes not exploited to the full. Here are 25 ideas for how to make better use of this resource. Before listening to the audio for the first time: While listening to audio for the first time: After listening to the audio: Like this: Like Loading...
Viewing ESL/EFL Blogs | TOPICS CALL Pages | ESL/EFL | Sandy Peters Create Your Own ESL/EFL Blogs Sandy Peters Viewing ESL/EFL Blogs To get an idea of ways you can use blogs in ESL/EFL, take a look at various types of blogs created by both educators and students. Blogs Used in ESL/EFL Classes Our Class 2007 Rosa Ochoa creates class blogs where she sets up weekly work for her adult migrant advanced students AMEP in Sydney, Australia.There are quizzes, competitions, students' own texts, students' recipes, photos, videos, and a lot more. Blogs to Extend ESL Class Projects: Relevant Postings and Student Comments Globally Speaking Sandy Peters used this blog to provide her ESL students an out-of-class writing space where they can express their ideas and opinions on topics of global interest. A Look at Bullying Sandy Peters used this blog to help university ESL students explore and comment on aspects an issue of consequence: school bullying. Class Blogs and Student Blogs that Successfully Incorporate Web 2.0 Tools Blogs Offering a Collection of Podcasts
Describing the Picture Word Inductive Model by Emily F. Calhoun The PWIM is an inquiry-oriented language arts strategy that uses pictures containing familiar objects and actions to elicit words from children's listening and speaking vocabularies. Teachers use the PWIM with classes, small groups, and individuals to lead them into inquiring about words, adding words to their sight-reading and writing vocabularies, discovering phonetic and structural principles, and using observation and analysis in their study of reading, writing, comprehending, and composing. The picture word inductive model can be used to teach phonics and spelling both inductively and explicitly. However, the model is designed to capitalize on children's ability to think inductively. Figure 2.1. For example, teachers using the model to develop sight-word vocabulary and to work on phonemic and graphemic awareness may stop at Step 7. The picture word chart is the basic material for the PWIM lessons and units. Building on Language Development
Adaptive Learning in ELT | A blog to accompany a series of talks that I will be giving in 2014 – 2016 about adaptive learning Error Correction The danger of over-correcting is that students will lose motivation and you may even destroy the flow of the class or the activity by butting in and correcting every single mistake. The other extreme is to let the conversation flow and not to correct any mistakes. There are times when this is appropriate but most students do want to have some of their mistakes corrected as it gives them a basis for improvement. So, the question is; When and how should you correct your students? Every teacher will have different views on this and different ways of correcting their students and it’s a case of finding out what both you and your students feel comfortable with. Ask the students how they want to be corrected This sounds obvious but it can be easily overlooked. o Red = don’t correct me at all (they may have had a rough day or be tired!) Are you working on accuracy or fluency? Before you begin an activity, bear in mind whether you are concentrating on accuracy or fluency. Correction slots
Mobile English Technical wizards Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney present a series of lesson plans on using mobile phones in class, suitable for any device from the most basic phone to the latest smartphone. An introduction to mobile learningAs an accompaniment to their Mobile English series, Nicky Hockly and Gavin Dudeney provide an informative overview of mobile and handheld learning.Mobile English: Secret instructionsStudents use mobile phones or voice recorders to deliver instructions that include phrasal verbs.Mobile English: Digital word banksStudents create individual or class image banks to record the vocabulary they study in class.Mobile English: Mobile phone dictationA short activity that can be used as a warmer or filler to review language that has already been covered in class. Any model of mobile phone can be used for this activity.Mobile English: Ideal phonePrint out the images of the old-fashioned mobile phone and modern smartphone located in the file in the top-right corner of the page.