Cross-cultural Joys of the Season- Winter ESL Activities

Nothing spruces up an ESL class like some interesting and timely holiday cross-cultural communication activities. 

They can be used to help implement a content curriculum, of course, but also a Task-based curriculum, Functional curriculum or grammar-based curriculum depending on which aspects you as the teacher want to emphasize. It is a really motivating subject and it is fun and fun = acquisition if done right. 

I am writing this in mid-December. Though Thanksgiving is over, there is still so much to explore before January 2nd comes around. Here are a few strategies that will introduce some motivating content and communicative practice into your winter classroom along with a little holiday cheer. 

Ho ho ho!

Every Culture has a Winter Holiday

In groups, have students discuss and then present holidays that are celebrated in their countries. 

Yes, this is low hanging fruit, as it were, but you may be surprised. In China and Japan, the winter solstice is commemorated in shrines and temples and most other countries have some sort of colorful and interesting festival around this time. Alternately, have students have similar projects, presentations or tasks focusing on their various ‘new year’ festivals, whether they held on January 1 or not.

Clustering the Holidays.

Have students in groups or as a class do a mind map (aka: cluster, web etc.) about Winter Holidays or about Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years Day, Krampus – as you like. (Did you look Krampus up? Also google the Icelandic Christmas Cat) This task can incorporate academic research with a little internet research and/or group discussion and vocabulary building as well. Once the mind maps are done, students can write descriptive sentences as they work their way from the center  out along each branch. Finally a paragraph, an essay, a presentation!

Winter Holidays Online

There are hundreds of winter holiday activities online to help students acquire vocabulary related to the season. Winter holiday word searches, crossword puzzles, sentence completions and so on are everywhere. This is one time when using a ‘kids’ activity will still challenge even high-intermediate young adult students. Students can do this in pairs, review vocabulary and apply it to another task.

Here is one site as an example: http://www.eslprintables.com/vocabulary_worksheets/seasons/winter/

Holiday Interviews

Have your students interview native English Speakers about the holidays as an extension activity or as a field trip activity. I have set several objectives when doing this in the past. Here are a few: Ask people what they think of the holidays. (Expressing opinions) Ask people what the differences are between Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanza and the winter solstice and which ones they celebrate. Ask people what five pros and five cons they have about the winter holidays? Ask people if they are doing any of the following: Sending out cards? Having a big family dinner? Setting up important holidays decorations? Eating special treats? Giving presents? Ask people to tell you their favorite holiday story or the best gift they ever got. The results of these interviews and surveys can all be written up, compared and contrasted, discussed and presented.

Watch a Holiday Flic

There are many many winter holiday movies that reveal a lot about our culture, use them and do so wisely. Having students doing short clips as dictations, looking for slang or Christmas collocations (How many words or phrases can you hear- “Christmas____”) or looking for specific grammar points (Christmas Adjective Clauses! Santa Clauses?!) or functions (Complaining! Expressing happiness!) can make movie watching fun but also useful ELT tools. Prepping wit a list of new vocabulary, a plot synopsis and so on can make it all more interesting and there should be discussion time after. Some great Holiday movies include A CHRISTMAS STORY, MIRACLE ON 34TH ST., ELF, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS, NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS…and there are so many more. Some so bad, like SANTA VS. THE MARTIANS, that they hold a special place in my heart.

Here is a list, though I’d avoid Batman and Bad Santa: http://www.imdb.com/list/ls050751257/

Some other winter holiday ideas:

Holiday music activities! There.are. so.many.holiday.songs…We are walking in a winter wonderland- ah! Present Progressive!

Creating winter holiday blogs, FB pages, Instagram sites and even old fashioned creative holiday Card creation.

How about a Holiday Tree with decorations from all over the world wishing peace and global understanding for all? Now, wouldn’t that be nice? The world could use it.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL!

Implicit Grammar Teaching: DO’s and DON’T’s (Part 2)

6. Correct errors compassionately

DO gather errors during class activities, games and tasks where they are using the targeted grammar. Then get the most common/important errors on the board in full sentences and have the students fix them with you, using guided questions, without saying who made the error.

Also, recasting is a wonderful relaxing way to display correct form without upsetting students. It is not as immediate an changing behaviors, but its subtlety is its strength and multiple exposures is not a bad thing. Consider, if directly correcting, subtle signals, hand gestures or having a DO?DOES card to hold up or using the rods to practice problematic grammar you are hearing. Choral work in general is more comfortable as is peer correction.

DON’T embarrass, humiliate or put students on the spot with corrections! What is the point? OK, I hear you saying that you never do that. Really? Do you have students stand up and recite? Go to the board and write sentences that you then correct before all? Do you students AS they are trying to communicate with you? Like your mom did?! Stop that and relax. Mistakes in grammar are rarely fatal. One need not correct every error right away, and never at the expense of real communication! Finally, DON”T correct everything ! If you are working on one grammar point, it is OK to ignore peripheral errors. Finally, when you do correct directly, if you must, do so gently with a smile AFTER you have let the student try to self-correct and ,finally, let them practice the corrected sentence.

7. Model model model!

DO: No matter what the grammar activity, do the first few examples yourself with authentic information. In other words, take the role of the student so that the students can SEE what you want. They will follow your model and, even if they don’t fully grasp the nuances of the grammar yet, they will as things progress. For example, I might begin a lesson on present perfect by having students interview each other and Ill model two students.

Teacher: “OK, I’m two students, watch me.”
(Using different voice) “Hey, what countries have you been to?”
(In normal voice, shifting position) “Well, friend, I have been to Morocco. I have traveled to Egypt. I have seen Peru.”

Then I write these on the board. I put them into pairs, and let them go at it. THEN I’ll write their answers on the board before eliciting the form from them. By giving three examples, they see the pattern, even if they don’t fully grasp the grammar yet. THEN we can discuss meaning and why I used present perfect instead of simple past.

If you want your students to do something, DO IT with the same materials and in the same way they will do it. Begin by saying, “OK, I’m a student now.” It seems odd but students get it right away and it saves a lot of time.

DON’T: Give instructions about (ABOUT!) how to do the activity. SHOW. Don’t elicit examples from students before they know what you want. SHOW. Don’t race through modeling or use one tossed-off example, take time and do a minimum of three examples. Grammar is about patterns. If you have explained and the students are confused, you did not model.

8. Realia blues

DO: Use authentic real examples of the grammar point. Hello!? What is the point of learning grammar if it isn’t to apply to real situations using real things in a real world? Hint, the grammar book has little to do with the real world. When teaching beginners count/non-count nouns, bring unto class real labels, boxes, cartons and a lot of real stuff like a bag of real groceries! Then pull each item out and ask them what it is. Someone will know; carrots, water, pop, bananas, rice and so on. As you pull them out, write them on the board under C or NC. Like THREE APPLES and SOME RICE. Answer questions! Later, focus on determiners!

DON’T: Teach words, groups or lists of words and so on when teaching this grammar point. The word ‘rice’ is not the same as a bag of rice. It is an abstract concept. The bag is real, and much more memorable. And you can eat it. Even photos are not real, but they are better. Stock your class with lots of REAL things!

9. Get students to use grammar outside of class

DO: Teaching present continuous? Have students go to a park and write down what people ARE DOING at that time. They will come back with sentences like ‘A man is walking. A child is playing. A woman is sitting with her baby.’ All these are real and authentic and interesting!

DON’T: Please let us avoid worksheets and (shudder!) Fill In the Blank cloze exercises! They are merely cookie-cutters and mostly a waste of time except for some rote practice and reinforcement. But even then, students either detest them, thus negating their purpose, or think that filling them in equals competency. It doesn’t. Ask yourself, when and where is this grammar used? Get them to go online and read advice columns for modals of suggestion or watch a sitcom for present perfect or find intensifiers in greeting cards. Have them use and find real grammar, it’s fun! Speaking of which….

10. Have fun!

DO: Make every activity or task fun, even if it is repetition, it doesn’t have to SEEM like repetition. Drilling past participle forms? Make it a competition or relay race. Practicing simple tense? Do a ‘chore I do every day’ ball toss, or use small cards and play memory with chore pictures and students can say, for example, ‘I take out the garbage every day’ or ‘I don’t take out the garbage every day.’ Somehow get students to buy in and enjoy the process!

DON’T: Make things abstract! Don’t ask for or give five unrelated vowels or gerunds and have students construct unreal sentences or give them (horrors) yet ANOTHER fill-in-the-dumb-blank exercise with no context or purpose.

Ask yourself in the middle of every grammar class: Am I having a good time? Are the students (mostly) having fun? Chances are that if YOU are bored, so are they, and vice versa. We have all had boring teachers, DON’T be ‘that’ teacher. Have fun!

Implicit Grammar Teaching: DO’s and DON’T’s (Part I)

When teaching form and structure, we are ‘going meta’ in the sense that we are teaching ABOUT the language and not necessarily immersing ourselves in the interactions that make up the language practice. Pragmatics rightly stresses the practical use of the forms we teach over theoretical or linguistic knowledge about those forms, though we as ELT sure do love that linguistic information.

However, our students may not be so inclined and, frankly, the minutiae of grammar is likely not that helpful for them. We at S-TESL have always sought to have students acquire grammatical forms in line with SLA theory and practice and therefor lean towards in-context grammar practice that is implicit and therefore more palatable and, frankly, easier to remember and apply. In other words, through mostly implicit grammar instruction our students acquire how to use the grammar rather than what the grammar is in terms of formulas.

Here then are 10 ‘rules’ I live by on what to do and not do when helping students understand and use grammar in an implicit manner:

1. Use questions, not statements

DO: Ask questions all the time.

DON’T make statements, i.e. lecture.

Example for simple past tense: You write on the board: I WATCHED A MOVIE. ASK students: What did you do last night? Write their answers. If they reply with something like, ‘I eat dinner.’ ASK: What is something you did you do not do every night?

Through judicious questions, you can lead the students down the ‘garden path’ and to the point of the grammar without them even realizing it without ever making a statement. Try it. Once real Past Tense sentences are on the board, then ASK: What do you see that is similar? What is different? What is THIS? (verb) How do you know it is past tense? Which ones are regular? Which are irregular?

DON’T: Ok class, here are five past tense sentences. Notice that each sentence has a subject verb and object. This is the subject, right? And this is the verb, right? And notice the ending….zzzzzz.

2. Use authentic contexts and information

DO: Always use authentic information that directly comes from you and especially from your students. Ex: Teacher begins gerunds/infinitives class: “I love summer summer! I enjoy Swimming and sailing. I like to picnic and I love to hike” Teacher writes sentences on the board, gerund sentences on one side, infinitives on the other. Then: “Tell me some of the things you enjoy doing and love to do?” The Teacher then writes full sentences students say on the board. Sentences without gerunds or infinitives are acknowledged but not written. As wrap-up, the teacher then asks: “Which are gerunds? Which are infinitives? Who can tell me what they are? How do you know? Can I say I enjoy to sail? Why not? At least one student will know, soon all will follow along. They are bright and will get it and all are motivated because it is about THEM!

DON’T: Teacher: ‘Ok class, look in the book. These are gerunds here. A gerund is blah blah blah. An infinitive is blah blah blah. Now, Choose one: Mary is late. She needs to run / running?’ Which is right?”

Here is the question on every student’s mind: WHO IS MARY?? Does anyone care about this imaginary person? Not caring equals not focusing on the real communication or missing the point. Your students and you have a lot of authentic and applicable grammar examples in your lives to work with, why not use them? Hint: Even if you use the grammar book, why not change the names of the subjects to your students’ names? It will be more interesting for them.

3. Forget the grammar book (mostly)

DO: Begin the class with a fun opener that introduces the grammar point, WITHOUT opening the grammar book! Maybe an info gap game, a’ find someone who’ with that grammar point in it or a memory game. Something that is fun and gets the students to swim a bit in the grammar point before having explicit form shoved at them. In fact, mostly avoid the grammar book or use it for wrap-up, reinforcement, reference or homework. YOU know the grammar, yes?

DON’T make the focus of grammar class a book! Grammar is not a book. In fact, avoid using the book as much as possible. It is not real, it is a source book. This is not particularly hard IF you the teacher KNOW THE GRAMMAR POINT and know it well. I start present continuous with charades myself. Why not? Ex; “Class, what am I doing?” Students: “You are standing. Talking, teaching …(etc.)” I get three of four sentences on the board and then have them do it. Then we together pull the form out. Then I have them talk about what WE are doing or HE or SHE is doing (to make sure I get all the ‘to be’ forms, am/is/are). I only have them look at the book to confirm forms and to reference spelling rules for –ing words or for homework.

4. Let students discover the grammar – no spoilers!

DO: Present grammar points as puzzles that need to be solved with logic and common sense!

Ask leading questions and get them to produce that form then puzzle out the form. Write scrambled authentic sentences showing the four forms of that tense about your life and make them unscramble and discuss them. Give them conversational choices and ask them why they chose a gerund or past tense. Give them wrong sentences and have them correct them and explain why. Have them search for adjective clauses in a celebrity biography and talk about what those odd pronouns are.. In other words, create a mini-grammar mystery that they have to work to figure out and then have them pull out the form and work with it. Not only will they be practicing grammar and cognitive skills, but they will truly acquire the grammar because they will understand it in their own way.

DON’T lecture or present a teacher-centered exposition on the grammar point that delivers all the information about that whole grammar point in a big neat package. These are intelligent people who want to work things out. Don’t do grammar ‘data dumps.’ In fact, if you are talking ABOUT the grammar point, then you are taking time from the students who want to DISCOVER and figure out the meaning of the grammar point and how to use it. Let them explore and discuss and figure it out; raise the bar and keep quiet but be there to facilitate and ask leading questions. Then, when you get THEM to wrap it up, the students will own it.

5. Keep it simple and focused

DO work with one aspect of the grammar at a time. If introducing modals like CAN for example, work with statements first. Ex; Class, who can touch their toes? Try to do it and tell me! What are some other things you can do? Write these on the board. Elicit form from the students. Then move naturally to negative statements. Ex: “OK, who can’t touch their toes? Tell me? What are some things you can’t do? Write these on the board. Elicit form from students. Next, focus on yes/no questions about the students. You get the idea:

DON’T model all the forms at once (as the book does) and review all these DIFFERENT patterns at once. Too much, too confusing, no context. Three big no-nos.

Contextualization is everything when it comes to acquiring grammar patterns. For example, don’t talk about statement forms and yes/no question forms in the same sentence without letting them work out each form through real, authentic practice and application. They will be overloaded, confused and not able to really acquire each pattern independently and will make lots of transfer errors that are avoidable. One. Step. At. A. Time.

NEXT - Implicit Grammar Teaching: DO’s and DON’T’s (Part 2)

The 5 Biggest Errors ESL Teachers Make When Talking to Students (and how to fix them)

Talking too fast. 

You get excited, you are having fun, the energy of the class is great and you are now talking too fast. The result is that your message is either lost or misunderstood. As odd as it sounds, the solution is not necessarily to speaker slower, unless you are really rattling away. You should instead enunciate more, shorten your sentences by breaking up complex sentences and monitor and simplify your overly complex grammar and vocabulary. Don’t forget to pause often!

Talking too much. 

Yes, we know why teachers become teachers and, admittedly, most do like to chat. However, students need the practice, not the teacher. Here are a few solutions: First, where are you in the session? If you are in the ‘receptive’ or beginning part of the session where input is stressed, then the teacher should be speaking more, but if you are facilitating student production, then you need to give less input. Some ways to ‘curb your enthusiasm’ (and talking) are to remind yourself with written cues on your lesson plan. Also, try leaving a visual reminder that conversation should be 80-90% from the students. Limit yourself to 5 sentences before each activity. If you are modeling (showing, not explaining) this should be enough. Even ‘fading’ from the circle or room for a bit helps!

Using an inappropriate tone of voice, often unconsciously.

 I have seen teachers address adult beginner students with a high pitched, sing-song tone that we usually reserve for children. “Oh isn’t that a LOVELY skit!!! You are SO artistic!!!” Adult learners may have low English skills, but they are not children and they may be very educated. Students may find such tones demeaning. To avoid this, record yourself interacting with your students. Could your tone be interpreted in a negative way? Is this how you normally speak to your friends? Practice speaking less complex sentences without affect. Ask your co-workers about your tone and listen to their answers with an open mind.

Using overly complex grammar when it is not necessary. 

OK, read these two instructions and decide which is more appropriate for an ESL student:
1. “OK, when you get the worksheet, which I am handing out now, you will fill out the answers in the blanks that are provided and then you are going to compare the answers you wrote on your sheet with the person sitting next to you to check them and see which ones are right and which ones are wrong.”
2. Here is a work sheet. (the teacher hands it out) OK, do you see the blanks? Good. First, read each sentence. Then, fill in each blank. Do this now.(pause) Now, share your answers with your partner. (pause) Which answers are right? Which are wrong? Discuss them. (pause) Now, we will review them together.”
In terms of grammar, vocabulary and comprehensibility, how do these two examples differ?

Using too many idioms. 

You are pressed for time, hungry as a horse, spinning your wheels and…you pull out an idiom. Idioms and idiomatic phrases are wonderful. They are interesting and liven up a class. Students love to learn them. However! If you are using too many and not making them comprehensible by the context they are in, then you are not helping the students. So much of English as it is spoken informally is filled with idiomatic phrases and chunks, so much so that we often forget that even simple phrases like ‘What’s up?’ are idiomatic and thus impossible to translate without some help. 

So, make a decision. Either use clear and literal English or, if you want to introduce idioms or idiomatic chunks, do so in a context that makes the message very clear. One easy way to do this is latching it to language they already know, for example: “Hello Hiro!, What’s up?” “Parking” your most-used idioms or idiomatic phrases on the board for later explanation is also a great technique. And, of course, you should monitor yourself and keep the flood of idiomatic language to a minimum!

10 Ways to Smart[er] Cell Phone Use in Your TESOL Classroom

If you get ESOL teachers together, the problem of smart phones comes up. There is no doubt that smart phones can be a huge distraction, so go with the flow. As a teaching tool, smart phones offer a wealth of possibilities for the creative teacher and students are motivated! Here are 5 ways that my students and I have used cell phones in class in positive ways to promote ESOL objectives.

Get them to talk! 

Assignment: Students are paired, half leave the room and go elsewhere. Each student has to call their partner and have them describe where they are until they are found.

Let them practice calling English speakers!

 In small groups, students are assigned tourist attractions (The Space Needle) and must come up with a questionnaire and then call the tourist and information center OR use the smart phones to find the information they seek, then present it to the class.

Have them practice getting/giving directions! 

Students in pairs both go to Google Maps (Bing if they must). One gets step by step directions from the school to an assigned landmark. And must read them with full sentences to his or her partner who will follow on a Google Map, asking clarification questions.

Get them to practice writing! 

The class is divided and paired up. Each person must have a text conversation with his or her partner without saying a word. Sentences must be full sentences and must be grammatically correct.

Incite a conversation! In pairs, students look at the weather app forecast and using modals of probability, talk about what the weather might be like in the coming days.Here are a few other possible smart phone ideas:

Grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation!

I never answer simple vocabulary or grammar questions, I guide students to discover the answer themselves with their phones in groups. Can the verb ADVISE take a gerund? Find out! What does 'retainer' mean? Look it up! How do we pronounce 'obscure', Google now pops up short pronunciation videos! After they find out, have them use it.

For iPhone or other cell  users, use SIRI or CORTANA to help students with pronunciation and to answer questions.

Use the stopwatch to time games and activities like ‘time’s up!’

Build schema before beginning a reading text. Students can Google

to find out about the author and read short summaries or reviews.

Get students into discussions about the news using news apps. Students can choose a top story or short news videos can be watched and discussed or summarized.

 There are many possibilities.

 More Apps! There are thousands, many free, many useful. Some research will reveal apps students can download that help them with everything from grammar to pronunciation to spelling.

The cell phone is NOT the teacher's enemy! It is a powerful and useful tool with the right framework- use it :)

SOME USEFUL POPULAR APPS:

Social: Facebook, Instagram, Skype, Twitter, Meetup, Snapchat, Music: Songify, Pandora, Tunein Radio,  Information: Dictionary, News (CNN, BBC) imessages, Vine, Kakao, Dropbox, Group on. Grammar: Grammar Games, Mad libs, Grammarup, The Grammar Game etc!

10 Cheap, Easy, and Useful Props for the ESL Classroom

It is very easy to fall into predictable patterns when teaching every day and sometimes a few simple props can make the difference between a ho-hum class and an exciting one. Every ESOL class should have these 10 props in the classroom to be grabbed and used as inspiration strikes! Many are dollar store items. Here is a list with a few possible ideas for use after each one:

Puppets! 

Students can make and use for describing, presenting and role-plays. Teachers can use for presenting dialogues and modeling activities.

Masks! 

Provided or students can create to show emotions and for characters for skits and plays and other dramatic activities. Teachers can do so as well.

Hats!

 These are simple props for sorting partners, for presentations, to designate teams, for role- plays and so on.

Colored index cards! 

Students can create many simple games like memory and then play them, they can be used for short writing activities or vocabulary work,’ to sort teams, for making beginning- outlines with different colors representing topic sentences and so on. So many uses!

Post-it notes of different sizes and colors! 

They are useful for practical vocabulary ‘labeling,’ as quick name or information or ‘role’ tags for students to wear, for ‘parking’ new words that come up or questions to be answered later and for grammar closes!

Old magazines! 

Collage work has so many possibilities alone! Students can use to create holiday cards, to present a topic or theme, for vocabulary work or for using grammar wrapped around specific images. The possibilities are endless.

Plastic food! 

Use it for count/non count noun work, ‘buying and selling’ work, describing or asking –about work, ordering practice and more.

Fake money!

 Learning about money vocabulary, money slang, counting, buying/selling and more.

Fly swatters! Use for team competitions to avoid physical jousting and arguments (swatter on the bottom is the winner!) Relay races! Vocabulary games! Phonetic work!

Realia, realia, realia! 

Text book items are simply not real and it makes a difference. Real menus, utensils, tools, cookware, photographs, documents, application forms, sale flyers, junk mail, holiday items and interesting knick-knacks from different cultures all spice up a class in many different ways!

Have fun!

10 Relaxed Ways to Help Students Acquire Grammar Accuracy

Ah, correcting grammar. It is so easy to mess it up. Over-correct, students feel browbeaten. Under-correct, they get ossified grammar errors. So let’s start with a few basic guidelines that I know work.

First, be nice. 

Seriously. Errors are not irritations, they tell us what our students need to learn, how useful for both them and us! If there are no errors then they don’t need us. I used to have a sign up saying I LOVE GRAMMAR ERRORS! Don’t lecture, mentor. Remember, no one like to be told ‘you are WRONG!’ Better to say ‘,Hm, almost! Let’s fix it.’ When correcting students, don’t embarrass, humiliate or put them on the spot. Group corrections are always more palatable. Get all students, even the lowest level ones, involved in discovering, figuring out and playing with the grammar. And remember: There is NO excuse for a completely boring grammar class and the fastest way to demotivate is to teach from the book. No. Bad. Stop.

YOU know the grammar, start there, with you and the students having a fun time discovering and creating authentic grammar sentences. If you must, END with the book, saying “See? This is exactly what we did today. Here are some specific in-class techniques for having some fun correcting.

The Raised Eyebrow

Have a relaxed body gesture, like a raised eyebrow or a hand raised, to indicate that a grammatical error has been uttered, signaling to the student that they should monitor and revise. Do it with a relaxed pose and smile. This lets students self-correct, the whole point of grammar class.

Collecting Wild Errors

Have your students do a grammatical communicative grammar activity and walk around listening for errors but don’t say anything. Write down the errors you hear. If there are many that are similar, like dropping ‘did’ in a past tense Yes/No Question, they just collect a couple. When the activity is done, list them on the board without saying who made the errors. Let the whole class help fix them.

Grammar Races

Irregular forms really suck for our students. A fun way to drill is via team competition. Before teaching Present Perfect, this sort of activity prepares students for that past participle quagmire. Have a bunch of common past participle forms on cards of verbs that students have already had and then organize two teams standing in two rows, say the simple form of the verb (eat!) and then the team representatives, whose turn it is, have to say the three verb forms: ‘eat/ate/eaten!’ If they can’t, the other team gets a shot. Run it like a relay race. Each win is a point. This can be done for all sorts of forms, especially irregular ones.

Peer Correcting

Before I ever had a student offer to share his or her written work with the class I surreptitiously pair them up, weaker grammar student with stronger one, and I let them peer edit and correct. There are three rules: All must be done respectfully. The reasons for the corrections have to be explained and, finally, if they aren’t sure, they need to get the teacher to check. Then I do a wrap up on what the common errors were and ways to fix and remember the answers. It is relaxed, fun and students find it a real and useful in-context skill.

Board Game

Create a simple board game with all the targeted grammar represented as questions with errors. Game board templates are easy to download. Students play, land on a square (Ex; You work Friday?) discuss and correct it and then practice it with each other (Ex; Did you work Friday? No, I didn’t) I can just walk around and hear all the awesome grammaring and when done, we wrap up by having them tell me the forms and what the problems are. Sweet.

Slap

You need flyswatters and two teams set up in rows, the first person in each row has the fly swatter. This game is useful for all sorts of grammar points where there are choices, like count/noncount nouns or -er/-more- comparative adjectives.

The board is divided by the choices COUNT / NONCOUNT / BOTH. Then, the teacher yells ‘homework’ or another noun and students have to slap the correct choice. If both hit the NONCOUNT side of the board, the swatter at the bottom is the winner. Then review. There are many permutations of slap.

Memory

I have my students make memory cards targeting the grammar point, Ex: Present Perfect, Simple Past, Phrasal Verbs and so on. They have to review/remember/discuss all the grammar points we have done and get them on index cards in pairs or groups. Right away, this is good review.

Then, they all take a card (that isn’t one they wrote) and they have to write an authentic sentence on a new, differently colored card that shows the grammar and they underline the key aspect. Ex: SIMPLE PAST / I ate sushi yesterday. When done, we mix them up and play Memory with them. It is fun, they are motivated because it is their game, and of course there will be errors, so we correct them all together as we play, with no stress.

Rods

Yes, spare the rods and spoil the grammar, right? Cuisenaire Rods can be a grammar teacher’s best friend, especially for implicit grammar which often helps students acquire the grammar point better and faster. As a visual learner, I love them. While the full use of the colored rods to show grammar patterns is a bit too complex to describe here, they have another use worth noting, as a ‘reminder.’ Many use the small white rod for TO BE and the slightly larger red rod for DO/DOES/DID I’d add another, maybe the pink rod, to represent HAVE/HAS. We know students often leave these ‘helper verbs’ out. For example, a student might write ‘She not works yesterday’ or ‘You work yesterday?’ leaving out the DID because, let’s face it, where did DID come from anyway?! By leaving a red rod at each desk as a hint, students are reminded that often DID must be part of the form. Use rods as nifty mnemonic devices!

Mad Libs

I know, right? Still, students love the silliness and it is all grammar. It is easy to make up your own based on the level of the students and your targeted structures, but many ESL madlibs are online as well. Even beginners know when they are absurd and in wrap-up you can bring all the forms being practiced back to authentic examples generated by the students, thus teaching linguistic appropriacy. Yes, ‘He ate a blue pizza’ is absurd, but a discussion of what adjectives WOULD work is useful and leads to, hahaha! Collocations.

Colored Markers

The wonderful program called G.L.A.D. has glommed onto the rods/color concept by extending it to markers. This works great for low beginners. First, have a set handy, assign colors to forms and be consistent. For example Blue is nouns, red is verbs, purple is adjectives, pink is adverbs and so on. Give students a visual color code. When you write examples on the board, use the right color markers. Very quickly students ‘get’ the colors and the language and go from there!

When students make errors, especially syntax errors, use the colors to show them. They quickly learn the color patterns and it helps them to self-correct.

Scramble and Hangman Retooled

Scramble is simple. By putting simple, authentic scrambles sentences on the board, students get to puzzle them out. Ex: a e I d t e n i n r – under it write: _/_ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _. Students puzzle it out and write: I/ate/dinner. Do four different forms for that tense (I ate dinner, I did not eat meat. /Did I eat pizza? / Where did I eat pizza?) and you have all that you need to talk about form, meaning and use of past tense and the students, as a class or in groups, really love figuring them out and asking for clues.

Hangman is the same Idea, don’t play it with words, but sentences germane to YOU that are will. Ex re: Modal WILL: _/_ _ _ _/_ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _/_ _ _ _ _ _ _= I WILL COOK DINNER TONIGHT. Now do a negative statement, a yes/no question and an info question form with WILL and , again, you have all the forms you need to discuss the grammar AND students often don’t even realize they are working with grammar amidst the competition.

The Hook – Setting the Tone For Your Class

First experiences are important!

 They set the tone for the class and emotionally and intellectually separate the students from their last class or other parts of their day. Here are 5 things you can do to hook your students right away, no matter what you are teaching.

Music!

 Have music playing that relaxes or excites or puzzles or entertains. Ravel’s Bolero sets a mood of expectancy! A Jay Z or Nirvana might shock! Miles Davis might puzzle! All elicit different reactions that could lead to discussions or even help anticipate the lesson. Introduce a lesson on weather with the Beatles ‘Here comes the sun.’ Always have a selection of MP3s ready to go!

The Board!

 Have something unexpected written on the board. It might be a simple scrambled sentence ( GDOO IMRONGN! ), a provocative headline (WHAT WILL NORTH KOREA DO NEXT?) or a debatable opinion (SCHOOL UNIFORMS ARE GREAT). “WHAT WILL YOU BUY TODAY?” on the board is a perfect hook for a lesson on count and non-count nouns.

A Visual!

 Place photos from a vacation or the neighborhood at tables, a funny drawing on the board, or a web page on the document camera all can get things interesting fast. Google maps can be used to set the stage for asking for directions.

Do Now Tasks!

 Have a simple game set up that students know or hand them slips of paper as they walk in that gives them a task. For example, instructions on the board to find out everyone’s favorite ____(food, TV show, etc.) can be a fun warm up.

BE the Hook!

 Your tone, mood, attitude, posture, sends a message on many levels. ‘TOEFL class is fun!’ may sound counter-intuitive but it can be. YOU are a prop! A name tag, ugly holiday sweater, silly hats, or an umbrella; All these props set the stage for something and get attention. I’ll never forget the teacher who came dressed as a clown one day and neither will his students!

How can this picture posted of me in Egypt be used as a hook?

HOW TO LEAD A SUCCESSFUL ESOL ACTIVITY

OK, time to reinvent the wheel!

Every teacher knows what an activity is within a classroom setting, and English Language Teachers are all aware that activities are the bedrock of Communicative Language Teaching. No surprise there. However, though all of you reading this know how to lead an activity, it always behooves us to revisit how we do what we do with an eye to improving our teaching and to get better at helping our students achieve their goals and desires. It is, after all, what we live for, right? So, with that in mind, let’s take a look at activities in the ESL/EFL classroom in terms of procedure and, maybe, we can offer a few new angles.

SETTING CLEAR OBJECTIVES

There are many kinds of ELT activities, often depending on the learning target, the methodology, the student population and so on. So the first Step should be knowing why you are doing what you are doing. To simply, for example, play ‘hangman’ with your class to fill in 10 minutes (something we have all been guilty of) could be a more powerful activity if it were tied-in with another objective or used for review of new target vocabulary or even as a wrap-up or introduction to a grammar point. So, make sure your activity has a linguistic objective that is functional, grammatical, lexical, content-based or task-based. My suggestion is to keep that clear focus while also having fun!

GETTING THE STUDENT’S ATTENTION

Once you are about to start the activity, hook your students and this will result in maximum motivation! Plan what you are going to say or do or show that will both set schema and pull them into the moment. Simply scattering dice on the tables or playing a song ‘(We Will Rock You’?) or acting out a scene might creat the desired effect. “Class please pay attention” is not, often, very motivating or even very effective. GRAB them. ‘OK class, are you ready to solve a murder mystery?!’ will do it!

SUCCINCTLY INTRODUCE THE ACTIVITY!

Notice succinctly! I challenge every teacher to use no more that 3-5 sentences to introduce the activity. All of these sentences should be at the level of the student. Many of them can and should be questions. For example: “Who knows what a ‘Find Someone Who’ activity is? Can you tell the class? Follow with short sentences in imperative or simple present. Ending with ‘NOW WATCH ME’….

MODELING This is the key to successful ELT in many ways. We can define it as DOING WHAT YOU WANT THE STUDENTS TO DOTHE EXACTLY THE WAY YOU WANT THEM TO DO IT. The trick, though, is to ‘BE’ a student when doing it. In this way we avoid long complex sentences, difficult grammar and/or vocabulary and meta language of all kinds. Modeling often begins with ‘Watch me. I’m a student.’ Do you want your students to write a skit? Do it. Write a short skit yourself on the document camera then act out both parts. Do you want them to come up with three sentences with gerunds? Do it first. Showing always communicates more than explaining..

FACILITATE

To me facilitating an activity is a mixture of assessing and gentle coaching without interfering. Help encourage the students to do the activity in a relaxed, fun and friendly manner and gently answer questions or, better, ask leading questions that help them discover the answer. During the activity, get up! Walk around unobtrusively. Observe, assess student abilities informally. Give them space, even leave the room for a bit if you can. Grab any new vocabulary you hear being used and park it on a board for later review. Encourage but do not engage or add more instructions. Let them do the activity! Don’t interrupt or correct during the activity! All can be done later. Let the students have autonomy but do help them to keep on track. Remind class about time restraints (OK, 3 minutes!) and make sure all students participate in the presentation or activity. Ok! The skit, game, role-play or whatever activity is being run is done, now what?

WRAP UP

Students have been creatively and, one hopes, with enjoyment practicing the target language or structure you have assigned and have completed the activity! Is it time to go? No! Don’t let all that wonderful language float away! A wrap up brings the students’ attention back to the targeted language or structure or content in a relaxed but reinforcing manner. If the activity resulted in a written text, have the students underline the key language or structure in the text and tell you what it is, each in turn or group by group. If it was a game or role play, have students orally tell you the targeted grammar or functional language. For example: “You did great ‘restaurant ordering role plays!’ Can you each tell me how you ordered your food? I’m your waiter! This constant reinforcement within a relaxed, fun and authentic situation will help students to acquire the targeted language!

And there you have it! A successful, comprehensible, enjoyable, applicable activity! Well done!

Most importantly, have fun! We learn and acquire what we find motivating and enjoyable.