Practical Ideas for Efl Teachers. Методическое пособие

PRACTICAL IDEAS for EFL TEACHERS

Compiled & adopted by Galina M. Tatarchuk

CONTENTS • • • • • •

SOME ICE-BREAKING IDEAS FOR BEGINNERS FOR INTERMEDIATE TO ADVANCED STUDENTS READING ACTIVITIES WRITING ACTIVITIES VARIOUS REVISION

SOME ICE-BREAKING IDEAS •

This is an idea for the beginning of school especially helpful for teachers who may have trouble learning new names. Put each student’s name on a separate index card. Add information such as phonetic pronunciation, gender, etc. Use when calling on students. Shuffle the cards after each round so students can’t anticipate their names. Ask questions first, then say the name so all students listen to the question. This is also very helpful in assuring that you call on students equally, not just the “stars”. It also cuts down on the students who always want to be the one of ones to answer first. You can use it as a way of taking attendance without taking time for that task. Just eliminate the cards of those absent and it after class.

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This is another good icebreaker for the first or second day of classes. Material needed is an inflatable ball blown up. Students introduce themselves and give their names to the class. Have students stand in a circle. Begin by throwing the ball to someone else and have the student throwing say the name of the person who is to receive the ball. (Teacher demonstrates first). If the student can’t remember the intended receiver’s name just ask the person to repeat his or her name and then say the name and throw the globe. When all names are familiar to all, stop and ask the students to name their hometowns (ages or hobbies, etc). Discussion, Questions/Answers can follow depending on level about each student’s town, home. Also, comparisons of who lives furthest, who lives closest. Good practice for contrasting asking another's name politely and informally, comparative/superlative adjectives (further/furthest), reported speech relating to information about students’ towns could follow pair work exchange of information about individual towns.

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This is a simple first-day icebreaker available with both small and large classes. The students think of three sentences, two are facts and one is a lie. One by one, students introduce themselves and say their three sentences. The rest of the class has to guess which one is a lie. It’s best for the teacher to go first, not only to provide an example, but also to let the students know that the teacher is interested in interacting with them.

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Instead of starting a class with all the students standing up and talking about themselves, which can be scary to some, have the students pair up and interview each other and introduce each other to the class as, “This is my friend …(name), he lives in Moscow, etc…” Variations: have the students interview each other and explain to the class the following topics: Their day,

Their favorite book and magazine and why, Their favorite food, a memorable vacation, etc… •

Have the students line up by alphabetically order. DON'T help them. DON'T organize it. Have the students ask each other their names and figure it out together. Then you check it. Write the names on the board. Second, line up by Last name, alphabetically. Then check. Other variations: Line up by Birthday, Size of family, etc. Avoid obvious things like physical size, weight, hair color, etc…

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After getting to know each other on the first day of class, on the second day you may ask students to write something about themselves, or to fill in blanks with information about themselves. Then mix up the papers and hand them out again. Each student must read the paper she/he gets, and try to guess who it is. (Works best with a large class.)

FOR BEGINNERS •

Here are a couple of ideas for lower level students. Find some pictures of fruit, colours or body parts etc. Drill the students by having them look at the picture and repeat after you, i.e. banana, banana, banana… The next picture strawberry, strawberry, strawberry… etc. Then split the students into two teams, and have them line up. Put the pictures at the front of the class, facing the two lines. Then you call out one of the fruits, the first two students at the front of their line/team run forward, the first one to touch the correct picture (and maybe say it) gets a point for their team! Those two students then go to the back of their lines and the next two have a turn!

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WHO ARE THEY? Students are asked to make up the dialogues between Dentist and Patient, Mother and Daughter, Librarian and Student etc., but they can't use the terms for either role. Then they come to the front of the class and act out dialogues. The rest of the class has to guess who they are.

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WHERE ARE THEY? (E.g., at the Park, at a Party, in an elevator). Students make up the dialogues, but, again, they cannot use the place name in their role-play. You can make it a team game and the first team to guess the correct answer gets a point.

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Write down words from past lessons and put them on small strips of paper. Put all the paper in a box (or hat) and the students took turns drawing a

word. Then they went to the front of the class (only 10 kids) and they had to describe the word in English or through actions. •

CHAIN REACTION. If the lesson's topic was pets, for example, you can try this exercise. Start by choosing one student. Tell him/her what your favorite pet is: "My favorite pet is the ferret", then ask him/her: "What is your favorite pet?" He/she has to answer with a complete sentence and then, choose a student and ask the question, and go on like this until everyone has had a chance to ask and answer a question.

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Reviewing and practicing question formation. Divide the class into groups of three or four and ask each group to choose a famous person (Michael Gorbachov, James Bond, Alla Pugachova etc.) Then give each group a page labeled “Answers”. The answers can be like this: 1. Absolutely not, 2. Every night at midnight, 3. A good toothbrush, 4. Michael Jackson, Etc. (Up to ten answers, each one to elicit a different type of question). Then tell the groups that they have to make a conversation between a reporter and the famous person they chose. They have the answers, so they will have to make the questions for each answer and arrange them in a logical, conversational order. Then two members of each group presented the conversation to the class.

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CATEGORIES. Ask one of the students to think of a person in the class. Then ask her/him, “What season is this person associated with?” The student must answer in a full sentence. And there are limitless categories as vocabulary gets richer (e.g. a car, a flower, a place, a colour, a piece of furniture, a book, a song, etc.) The rest of the class should guess who this person is.

FOR INTERMEDIATE & ADVANCED STUDENTS •

Here's a game idea for intermediate to advanced students. Some simple pictures containing only basic shapes and lines: circles, triangles, squares, rectangles, and straight and curved lines. Be sure to keep the drawings down

to two or three elements at first. Keep them simple! A 5x7 or smaller index card works well for this. Next split the class up into teams (if it's a large class), groups of three to five work well. One person from each group is chosen to go to the blackboard to draw. Without letting the ‘draftsman’ see, give your drawing to his or her teammates and have them tell the ‘draftsman’ how to draw your diagram on the chalkboard. More advanced students can be taught to describe shapes by associating them with other things: “It looks like the moon with a bite taken out of it on the upper left”. •

For intermediate to advanced students, you can use the game SCRUPLES to get conversations going. The game includes a series of cards with "moral situations" that require “yes” or “no” answers. Divide the class up into an even number of groups, giving every second group the same question, and assigning to them a “yes” or a “no” answer. What they have to do is discuss amongst themselves reasons for their positions, and then express them to the rest of the class in a kind of debating format. The class can then vote on which of the two teams has the strongest arguments.

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"SPLIT RIDDLES". Available with upper-intermediate+ students with good results. Write the question to several riddles on slips of paper and write the answers on another, mix them up and distribute the split riddles to students and ask them to find the match. Sample riddles: What is the #1 worldwide use of cowhides? (To hold cows together). Why are scarecrows always winning awards? (Because they're outstanding in their fields). Why do people who live in the Sahara so rarely go hungry? (Because of all the sand which is there). What is our biggest problem today, ignorance or apathy? (I don't know and I don't care). What did the grape do when the elephant stepped on it? (It let out a little whine). What did one chick say to the other chick after their mother laid an orange instead of an egg? (Look at the orange marmalade!) Did you hear about the ship that was carrying a cargo of yo-yo’s that went down off the coast of Taiwan? (It sank 2,356 times!) If a man is born in Spain but he’s raised in France and gets his first job in New York City, then retires in San Francisco where he dies, what is he? (Dead). Why shouldn’t you play poker in the jungle? (Because of all the cheetahs).

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How do you get a mouse to smile? (Say “cheese”). You get the picture. Anyway, it's a good, light-hearted activity.

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THE NEW-VOCABULARY-HANG-MAN. Divide the class into two groups. Draw two posts for hanging their men. Write a good simple definition for the new vocabulary words. Then write the correct number of blanks for the word and let each group take turns trying to discover the word. The students keep rereading the definition to try to figure out the word that they remember most of the words by the next class (without studying at home)!

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For this activity, you should find four different paintings (one medieval, one surrealist, one pre-Raphaelite and one realist) and bring them to class. Put each painting in one corner of the room, and ask the students to visit each painting and write down a list of as many words as they can find to describe what they see. The words can include colours, shapes, objects, relationships, situations, and any feelings the painting may give the student. Then try to brainstorm a class list of words together on the board. This way, the students get to share any vocabulary they've learned, and compare their different responses. Finally, ask the students to write a short composition about one of the paintings. The composition will have to include a detailed description of the painting (the colours, shapes, objects, situations etc.), and a brief "story" explaining what is going on in the painting. You may ask the students to give the painting a title.

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MURDER MYSTERY/JURY TRIAL. If you teach intermediate or advanced conversation classes, you can use the following fun activity to engage them in practicing questions/answers. First, create a "murder case" with enough characters and lawyers to have each person in the class take a role. Give each student a description of their role only (only they see and know this information). Then, the lawyers for each side (prosecution/defense) must interview each of the witnesses/characters involved in the murder case. After all the students have been interviewed, stage a mock trial in class, with you as the judge. This is also a good opportunity to go over some legal vocabulary words. Have each lawyer ask questions of the witnesses and at the end have the students discuss who they think is guilty. (Create a murder case where there is uncertainty about the identity of the murderer).

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Pair work is very important in larger classes, for obvious reasons. Bring in a resume, or talk about resumes for a few minutes with the students what goes on a resume. Next, have all students quickly (10 minutes) write a resumes in English. Encourage exaggeration, lies (comedy is so important for enjoying a

conversation class). Next, have them work with partners taking turns interviewing each for jobs. Choose the jobs: possible (fun) choices are McDonalds, Gas station attendant, NASA Astronaut, CIA spy, Military General, anything a little out of the ordinary, or at least not what the majority of the students expect to do with their lives. Review frequently interview questions beforehand. (The students will know the questions in their native language for the most part). After everyone has interviewed and been the interviewer, query the class on their success: Did the applicant get the job? How did they do? It usually takes about 40 minutes.

READING ACTIVITIES •

If your goal is to have the students explore and play with English, you can take any textbook guided conversation and add a twist to it...emotions. For example, asking directions from someone who is angry. It changes everything, choice of words, body language, rhythm, and intonation. It is also a lot of fun to watch the students play with it.

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Ideas for using poetry. Take a fairly rhythmically simple poem like a ballad or "Roses are red..." poem and drill it to death, analyzing rhythm, connected speech diphthongs etc… Next, get students to choose two phonemes that they find difficult. They brainstorm words, which contain these phonemes. Then, they try to compose a poem to fit a rhythm similar to the previous poem, which may or may not use line terminal rhyming patterns. In the end, get them to transcribe the poem into phonemic script, indicating connected speech where appropriate. Lastly, they share the results around and try to read them to each other.

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This is a quick little activity to reinforce other lessons on the difference between -ing and -ed adjectives (bored/boring, excited/exciting, etc.) Make out slips of paper with the adjectives you want them to learn. Put the students in pairs and give each pair a set of papers. So Andrew and Serge have "bored" and "boring." Ann and Kate have "interested" and "interesting" etc. Tell the students, and perhaps demonstrate for them, that they have to act out or somehow demonstrate the difference between the two words and have the class guess, "Who is 'boring'?" and "Who is 'bored'?"

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You can use a version of concentration for reading. Buy a bunch of National Geographics used and cut out all the pictures that are three inch square or smaller. Paste the pictures on small pieces of construction paper. Once this is

done type out sentences that correspond to the pictures. E.g. "There are two baby foxes playing next to a dead rabbit." Paste these on coloured construction paper that corresponds to the color used with the pictures. You can use multiple sentences for more advanced students. If you have a large class make an appropriate number of sets (make sure you use different coloured construction paper for each set, otherwise you'll have a pain trying to sort them out if they get mixed). Since each set will be different because of the pictures, you can use the game multiple times. You can use other magazines, but National Geographic has the best and most varied pictures… Here are some suggestions to teach four language skills effectively using reading materials: (1) Choose reading materials that students are likely to show their interest in. This is very important as students will be reluctant to read if the reading material is boring, and you cannot expect them to show their interest in it. (2) Start your lesson with discussing topics relating to the reading material. To do this, you should prepare the topics to discuss beforehand and give them to students before they discuss them in groups and/or in class. This way they will have time to prepare what to say, show more of their interest in the reading material and understand it better when they read it. (3) Discuss the content of the reading material and the related topics, and extend the discussion to the level in which students can express their own thoughts and feelings about what they have discussed and read. To do this, it is necessary to give students topics to discuss in advance so that they can have enough time to prepare what to say as their thoughts or feelings. (4) Have students write compositions based on what they have discussed and read in class. To do this, you can recommend students take notes about what they have discussed and what has been written on the blackboard. Besides, it is very helpful if you give them 'hints for writing' from which they can get tips for writing compositions. This way they are well motivated and inspired to write. Textbooks often deal with reading materials that are rather difficult for students to understand and discuss. So you can make your own textbook taking your students’ level and interest into account. To do this, you can send them out a questionnaire to know what topics they are interested in before you get down to making it.

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WRITING ACTIVITIES •

Encourage your students to keep a dialogue diary with you. Every day/week/whenever they feel like it, they write to you in an exercise book. You read what they have written, and reply. The aim is to encourage fluent writing through communication - writing is *not* corrected. It also helps to build up good rapport between teacher and student. It can however require a lot of work on the part of the teacher, depending on how many classes you use the idea with, and on how many of your students write and how often they do so. They can write about anything - they can tell the teacher about their day/week, about their plans for the weekend, or they can ask about problems they are having with English, or about the teacher. Make it an optional activity, and not all your students will opt in anyway - only those who want to.

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Whenever you have an activity that students write, do not correct it. Type the written assignments out WITH the errors. Photocopy. Place students into groups, and give them the papers. As a group let them correct the errors themselves. They like the interaction, and seem more interested because it is their own actual work that is being corrected. After this group activity is finished, as a class go over the possible correct answers together.

If you try to get your students to bring their senses into their writing, you can use the following activities to demonstrate the power of the senses. SMELL. Bring in a variety of smells, have each student close his/her eyes, and then describe/guess what the smell is. Afterwards, smells are passed around and “smell metaphors” are created. SOUND. Bring in a tape of a rainstorm and play about a 10-minute segment. Students have to answer the following questions: • Describe everything you hear. • Where is the scene taking place? • Are there any people? • What do you feel? HOMEWORK. Students write a short story based on what they heard on the tape. SIGHT. Bring in a variety of objects, place them on a table, and cover them with a sheet. After uncovering them, have the students study them for approximately one minute. After covering them again, students have to list as many of the objets as they can remember. Afterwards, each student chooses an object and writes a brief description. Objects are passed around so that each student is given a chance to describe a variety of objects. You can also place •

chairs back to back (so each paired student cannot see one another). After receiving an object, one student will describe and the other will write. After guessing the object, a new object is given. •

Divided the students into small groups of four/five, then distribute a piece of paper with the beginning of the story/composition only like: “I was about to turn in and from my bedroom I…” For each group there should be a different beginning. Give them (about 3 minutes each) to write (you can time them), and when times up the next person in the group continues to write, and so on till the last member of the group has written. In the end each group exchanges stories. Their product should be put up behind the class for everyone to listen to and evaluate.

Dictations seem to be an underused commodity. One fun version is to paste the passage to be dictated on the wall outside the classroom door and have the students, who have been put into pairs, pass the information to each other. In other words, one student runs out, views the passage, commits a phrase to memory, runs back in and passes it orally to her partner. The partner transcribes it as best as she can. No spelling out of words is allowed, and neither can the messenger look at what her partner is writing and help her correct it. The first team done gets fifty points, the second done gets 47, and so on. Then a point is subtracted for each mistake, so teams have to try to strike a balance between speed and accuracy. • Another version is to divide the class into teams, and tape the passage to be dictated on the front board. The first player from each team runs up and gets a phrase from the board, and passes the phrase to the first person in line. The second player passes the phrase to the next, and so on to the end, where the last player in the row writes down what s/he hears. The same scoring rules apply. This is a notoriously difficult activity, so teams are best limited to 4 or 5 members.

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This is a fun process writing exercise. Process Writing, as we all know, is where ESL students learn that writing is process of creations and edits and no one sits down and writes wonderfully the first time through. Here’s how it’s done. You need some old slides and a slide projector. You announce to the class that you picked up your film yesterday and were given the WRONG film by mistake. You need the class to play detective and help you find out about this person. Step 1: Show three slides. Ask the students to write (double spaced) what this person does for a living.

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Step 2: Now the students must slide their papers to their partner on the right. Now the students must read what the other person wrote and continue the story from there (after they get the next three slides). Step 3: Show three slides. Ask the students to pick up where the original author left off and write what kind of person the photographer is. Step 4: Ask the students to circle the adjectives. If there are very few adjectives written, ask the students to add adjectives. They can write over others writing. After they finish writing, solicit adjectives from them (if you do it before they finish writing, you might influence the others). Step 5: Switch papers, show three slides and ask for another attribute (e.g.: Profession, Political Beliefs, etc…). Ask the students to circle another part of speech, such as the adverbs. Again, have them edit their papers, adding adverbs. Then solicit responses. There are a lot of variations on this and you really go far with this. Don't have a slide projector? No problem, get a collection of interesting things such as a Oil filter wrench which doesn't obviously convey its purpose and put them in a bag. Say you found the bag and are trying to find the owner. Please, don't be mediocre and just put in a banana and ask you students to write about a banana. At the end, after they read the compositions, tell the students where you took the pictures and why you found the pictures interesting. •

A writing exercise for intermediate and above. Students sit in a circle. They need a piece of paper. Tell students that they are to think of a serious question that they really want to know the answer to. Ask them to write the question at the top of the paper and be sure they don’t sign their names. Draw a circle around the question. Pass their paper to the right. Answer the question on the paper they received in writing. Allow only about 2 minutes or so per answer. When most seem finished pass the paper to the right again. Continue passing and writing until all have answered all questions and have received their own paper back again. Read answers and discuss. This is also a good way for the teacher to participate and get feedback to a question about the class’s feelings about any teaching issue.

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A TIME CAPSULE. Displaying a plastic container, tell the students that it is going to house your class time capsule. Then I distribute to them four sheets of paper, at the top of each there is a different subject heading, such as Current Events, Sports, the Arts, and Life in a University etc. Each student writes 2 to 3 sentences on each of the topic papers, then passes on to the next student. After everyone finishes, you can photocopy their papers (for correction and return) and ceremoniously place the originals in the plastic bottle. It will be buried someplace on the campus.

VARIOUS REVIEWS •

Two teams of students, each person has cards from a set with adverbs of frequency (sometimes, never, only once, etc). Nobody knows who has which kind of card. One person from team A asks person on team B a question, trying to get them to respond with the adverb they have on their card. So, if you are on team A and have the card NEVER, you will ask a student from team B: “How often do you speak English at home?” Hopefully s/he will say “never” and you will get a point for my team. If not, then a person from team B repeats process and so on. The winners can get a prize like a piece of candy, and the losers can do some terrible deed, like throw the candy wrappers in the trash or clean the blackboard, etc.

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This is a very simple music/listening idea. Take the lyrics of a song and cut them into individual line strips. Make the font big. A good idea is to use a popular song that is relatively repetitive on TV/radio. Clear off the table and spread out the lyric strips on the table. Play the song first without the students doing anything but listening and enjoying. The second time you play it, the students stand up and collectively try to order the strips correctly down the center of the cleared-off table. It may take a few times through the song to get it all done correctly but you will find the level of participation high and the focus clearly on listening accuracy. Finally, choose songs appropriate to the level.

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The game TABOO is a great way to improve vocabulary and fluency. The idea of the game is that one student has a card with a word which his/her classmates have to identify. The player with the card can only use speech to describe this word, and may not use key words listed on the card - they are TABOO! You can make your own cards, listing taboo words to the level and culture of your students. You can also divide your class into two teams for the competition.

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Use the well-known game “STOP” in order to make students reviewing vocabulary. Draw a chart on the board, showing as much columns as the fields you want (e.g. sports, animals, etc). Add two more columns: one for points and the other for “letters”. You can leave two or three subjects to be chosen by students. The game starts picking up a letter from a bag (this is easy to do). Students have to fill a word for each category. The first one, who has completed ALL the columns, says STOP. And the others have to stop writing.

At this point all answers are checked. Original ones are scored twice than shared ones, and the ones that only one student has, are scored three times. A winner is who scored more points after a round. •

An ABC game whereby students write headings such as ANIMALS, COUNTRIES, FOOD, SPORTS, TRANSPORT, FAMOUS PEOPLE etc (about 6), and then one person starts saying “A, B, C, D, E…” until the next person tells them to stop. They then write down an answer to each topic starting with that letter. The first person to complete the line says STOP and they mark it. Ten points if it’s original and 5 if it's the same as anyone else’s. And then continue on. Topics can be simple or more complicated depending on the level.

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Make a three by three grid and play TIC-TAC-TOE. You can use pictures of whatever key vocabulary you have been teaching, i.e. clothing. Put 9 different pictures on the grid. Use coloured buttons or make your own X and 0 markers. To place a marker, the student must correctly name the item in box he or she wants to take. Change the 9 items after a round to practice other vocabulary

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VERB TIC-TAC-TOE. The class is divided into two teams. Put a TIC-TACTOE grid on the board and put in tricky irregular verbs in the infinitive form. Students have to make a sentence in the past using the verb. The other team must either accept or not accept the sentence; if they accept the team gets a X or an O in the space where the verb came from. If the other team does not accept they must make a new sentence, not necessarily coming from the same location. The first team to get 3 X’s or O’s diagonally, horizontally or vertically wins. The game can be adapted to various grammar points. You can also play it with modal auxiliaries or even adverbs for more advanced groups (still, yet, ever…), or the ever popular phrasal verbs.

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Here's a great game to review just about anything - vocabulary, grammar, etc. Let's say after working on a certain topic such as HEALTH, you want to review Yes/No questions with “do and don't” - you draw a large TIC-TACTOE grid on the board. In each box, hang up a large visual such as a picture of a person with a headache, stomachache, fever, etc. You'll need 9 visuals in all. Divide the class into 2 teams "X" and "O". Number each box 1-9. Go over the pictures first. Then flip a coin to see which team goes first. In order to receive the "X" or the "O" for the box they have chosen, the teams must answer your question correctly. Let’s say a student chooses box 5; it has a visual of a person with a fever. You ask the student, “Do you have a

stomachache?” The student must respond, “No, I don't” in order to win that box for his of her team. You keep alternating between the teams until one team has TIC-TAC-TOE, or it is a draw. After a team wins a box, remove the visual and put an "X" or and "O" in that box. You can play this game to review just about anything - from vocabulary to prepositions of place, or from simple Yes/No questions to really anything else you can think of. •

There is a commercial children's game called "GUESS WHO". Each player has a grid in front of them that has about 25 faces on individual flip down frames. There are also a group of loose cards that match with the faces on the grids. Each player chooses one of the cards. The object of the game is to determine which character the other person has by asking questions pertaining to what the characters look like. It is a good reinforcer of the “Do you have…”, “Does s/he have…”, “Is s/he wearing…” and vocabulary pertaining to the area ‘above the neck’. In the ‘heat of the moment’, students may forget to use the target language, so you can put the phrases on the board as reference.

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SENTENCE AUCTION (idea is noisy). Material Needed: Sentence List. A bag of dry beans (or other counters). Compile a list of sentences containing frequent student errors. Mixed in with these sentences, are grammatically correct sentences. Number the sentences. Photocopy the list for all students. The length of the list depends on the time allotted. Divide the class into small groups of mixed ability. Give all students a copy of the list. Give all groups an equal amount of dry beans in a container. Explain that you are going to ‘auction’ off each sentence individually. Give a specific amount of time for discussion before auctioning each sentence. Each group must reach agreement among all members before bidding so one person can’t dominate. Accept bids from the various groups. The issue is simply to decide as a group whether or not the sentence is grammatically correct and if so bid on it. Bids should be for correct sentences only. The highest bidder wins the sentence IF it is correct. If not correct, the bid is fortified. The winner is the group with the highest number of correct sentences AND the highest number of beans.

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Oral Charades OCCUPATIONS AND EMOTIONS on slips of paper: one each per student. Have students draw papers from a hat (or two) and have them describe the emotion and the job on the papers without using these words. The rest of the class must guess emotion and the occupation, e.g. “Happy Postman”, “Frustrated Teacher”.

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You need a copy of the popular poster, “How are you feeling today?” Make a handout with three columns headed “Words”, “My Guess”, and “Actual”. First the students try to guess the meanings of the words (from the poster) as a homework assignment; then they fill in the actual meanings. Then give them a photocopy of the poster with the words blanked out to match the words to the faces. Then give them a copy of the poster with the words and for they could compare their answers.

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To encourage your students to keep their own vocabulary records, help them “learn” the words you cover in class, try keeping a class set of vocabulary cards. You can use index cards or just slips of paper. On the one side the students write the word, and on the other - the meaning (translation, English definition, part of speech, picture, pronunciation points etc. - at the end of the course discuss what constitutes a helpful meaning of new words). These cards are then kept in a box/envelope by the teacher, or ideally in the classroom where the students can access them. In various points during the course, use the cards in revision activities, perhaps at the beginning or the end of lessons. Students can test each other, play games, use (e.g. five) of the words each in a story, options are many other activities.

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You can play a game called AMNESIA with your conversation class. The way it works is to have cards with famous names on them, like Madonna, and each student gets a card, but CANNOT look at it! The task of the students is to break up into groups or pairs and try to tell each other what the identity is! Once someone had "remembered" his/her identity, hand over a new one, and s/he had to start over!

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GO TO THE MOUNTAINTOP… Grammar of questions and answers. If your students have trouble with “Is it…? It is…”, especially understanding that the syntax reverses from question to answer, try to use this idea. Draw a mountain on the board. The bottom level of the mountain says IS, the second level of the mountain IT, and the top level can say anything. The point is, to go up a mountain to ask a question (draw a guru at the top of your mountain, if you want), you have to first pass IS, then IT, of course doing this with rising intonation. To go down the mountain, one passes IT, then IS. Thus, you will be able to teach the inverted grammar of questions and their intonation at the same time.

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Here’s an idea for those of you who also love mind twisters and creative thought development… An integrated journal book called "Brain Candy" can

help you. In this book, students are able to do personal writing in the front (e.g. current issues, personal reflections, poetry, a letter to you, etc.) The back of the book should be reserved for their "Brain Candy" section. This is where you together can explore different solutions and patterns to various "problems" and situations. You will be able to creatively explore not only the English language, but also more importantly different and diverse means of thinking. •

When teaching nations, nationalities, and languages, drill students using this pattern: “The Koreans speak Korean in Korea”; “The Americans speak American English in America”. Then generalize to “The Swiss speak German, French, Italian, and Romansch in Switzerland”. This way the students associate the three learned elements and don't need to just memorize a list.

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You can convert a board game into a vocabulary learning game. At the previous day teach the students a reasonable amount of words. Then the next day do an overview quickly, but also introduce the game. Divide the students in small groups and give one person in the group a word to act out and let the others guess the word, but also write it on a piece of paper. The piece of paper should also have rows and columns where the teacher can incorporate a theme. Let’s say the word is “sister”. You can put on the piece of paper prior to the game a column that asks for the name of the student’s sister, the colour of her hair, etc. This always proves to be fun since the students think of it as fun rather than a lesson and actually they learn more than just the new words, but also learn to socialize and speak English with more confidence. You might want to use volunteers or assistants to monitor each group.

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You might use popular music videos and cassettes with your classes. You can discuss what the song is about, or rewrite the lyrics in a new tense, or even sing it. Ask the students to choose the song, in that way you will be sure they are interested in it. Best of all they remember what they’ve learnt because they hear the song outside the classroom as well.

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Why not ask your students to take YOU on a field trip? You can have the students work as a team or students can individually be responsible for a portion of the trip. This gives the students a chance to ‘show off’ their own town, and be the ‘expert’ on familiar territory. It also introduces you as the teacher to places and facts in and about the town you are in which you may never have otherwise looked at or realize.

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Try this game. Make various cards (at least 28 for a group of four) with simple objects (balls, cats, mice, etc) and place them in various positions relative to larger objects (cars, tables, sofas, etc). Keep the number of objects to four. The starting card can be anything, but the following card must have the same preposition or object in order to lay it on the previous. E.g., the first card is “The cat is on the table”. The second card must have a cat or the smaller object must be on the larger object (The ball is on the sofa). This game can be expanded by making the person who lays the card on the table ask the next person, “Where is the…” to which the respondent must answer correctly to place his card on the table. The winner is the first person to shed herself of all her cards.

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Try playing TEAM PICTIONARY! Divide the class into three or four teams. In turn, a member from each team comes to the board. Give the student a vocabulary word either in writing, or for students that can't read, just whisper it in their ear. Then the student has 1 minute to draw the word you gave them (it doesn't have to be a ‘thing’, it can be whatever you want). That person’s team shouts out guesses. You have to make sure that the kids don’t cheat and tell their teammates the word in their native language! Then, if after 1 minute the team can’t guess the word, the person stops drawing, and the other teams, each get one guess.

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Students are usually very interested in the life of their teacher. A good way to share information about you is to bring your photo albums into class. Let each student choose a photo. They then think of three questions to ask about each photo. Give them the answers and pair them up. They then tell their partner about the photo and exchange photos. They then change partners and share the information they learned about the new photo. You can change partners several times. It’s fun to ask questions about the photos at the end of the session because sometimes the information the last student has is different from the information you gave out.

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GO FISH. You can set up an activity gamecards that have pictures on them. For example, pictures with sports like baseball and hockey. The students then ask each other a set question. Like “Are you playing baseball?” The other student replies, “Yes, I am”" if they have the card. When the student has 4 cards that are the same he places them on the table. The student who has no cards wins.

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These same cards that you use to play “GO FISH” can be used for those students not yet familiar with the vocabulary or not at the production stage in a game called SLAP. Divide students in pairs or groups of three. Shuffle and place face up these picture cards in the middle of the students. Students must sit with their hands at their sides. The teacher then says the sentence, “I like to play basketball”. The students must slap the picture card that displays basketball. The student who slaps the card first gets to keep the card. After all the cards are described, the student with the most cards wins.

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A quick “no resource” activity that can be easily adapted. Give the students an empty chart with about 4 headings at the top of the page. Depending on what you want to use this exercise for, the headings can be varied. These are some suggestions: NAMES, COUNTRY, PROFESSION/OCCUPATION, SPECIAL TALENTS, etc. Students have to go around one at a time and give their own information. When they are not giving their own info, they must be listening carefully to the students in order to get their charts filled in. Not only does it reinforce name learning; students can practice listening, speaking, reading and writing skills. They also practice asking for repetition and clarification. You can ask question at the end to check if the information is correct.

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WHAT'S THAT SOUND? It can be used on any level, for many purposes. It consists of a tape with sounds, and four boards of pictures of the things that make those sounds. When the tape is played, the student puts a coloured chip on the picture of the sound maker on his board. The game can be played like BINGO, with the winner being the first one to fill in the card. There are only 36 sounds on the tape, but they are played in random order, twice on each side of the tape. You can photocopy the cards, if you need more than the four cards. Make a master list for yourself, so that you always know what sound is coming next. You can stop the tape and talk about the sound, or the spelling of the word, or to make sentences, or even to chat about the topic. You can also make lists of the words for the pictures and the sounds, as well as related words the students might use to make sentences about the topics. At the end of the lesson they can take the lists and the pictures and the sentences and any other additions they made, home with them for study. It is a very flexible ‘game’ and can be used as a jumpstart by more advanced students for writing paragraphs or short stories.

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HANG MAN. Another way to improve upon this favorite game is, instead of providing blanks for just one word, providing blanks for an entire sentence. It could even be a sentence about a student in your class or about yourself.

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The game WORD SHARK is a version of Hangman involving a man falling into the jaws of a shark instead of a man being hung, the object of the game being to guess the right word or expression before he meets his death. To make this exercise a game, put letter blanks next to the appropriate level of the mountain, with the question letter blanks on one side and the answer letter blanks on the other (questions go up the left side, and answers come down the right side). The man who falls toward the shark is a mountaineer with a walking stick, and the shark is in a lake at the bottom of the mountain. This is especially helpful for the students to drill in where and when the verb goes, and where the pronoun goes (up: Is -- a man? down: -- is a man). Note that this can be done with plural verbs (Are they toys? They are toys.) And, of course, pronouns other than "it." Note also that with the game, you can combine grammar, spelling, and intonation in one fun activity.

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WHEEL OF FORTUNE. Think of a phrase and put it on the board as blank spaces (_ _ _ _). Vowels cost $1000 dollars and $1000 to solve. The class is divided into two. Decide who goes first. One student comes up and sticks his hand in the bag you are holding. In the bag there are 30 cards; 15 are dollar amounts (ex. $100) as well as 2 MISS A TURN cards, 4 BANKRUPT cards (a skull and crossbones), 1x2 (doubles current amount), and 1/2 card (divides amount in half). The 15 cards are various task cards that the student (or team) must do to receive the dollar amount on the card. Some of the tasks are:

1. balloon burst – the student chooses one of three balloons which have amounts in them (one of which has a minus amount), and bursts the balloon; 2. group song; 3. solo song; 4. ball toss;

5. backward number recital particular times limit; 6. animal recital (time) 7. pushups; 8. envelope choice; 9. picture; 10. charades; 11. balance acts, etc.

If the student completes the task, they get the dollar amount and their team chooses a letter. If the letter is in the phrase, they get to go again; if not, their turn is over. The team with the highest point total at the end of the class wins. •

If you are studying English as a foreign language in a place where it is difficult to find any good partners to practice English, why not speak to speak English to yourself whenever you have time. Talking to yourself is very effective on various reasons. And the most important is that you do not to worry about making mistakes. You can try again and again you are satisfied with your expression. You can consult dictionaries, if you think it's necessary, before you actually speak out. You can control your vocabulary, grammar, and topics, as you like. You can check your understanding of what you've just learned.