Chris Speck

IELTS and Academic writing – fixed expressions

2017-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

IELTS and Academic writing – fixed expressions

Language is made up of chunks (see Michael Lewis – The Lexical Approach).
Like bricks that you put together, pieces of language fit together to make sentences. This is how we all use language. Learning fixed expressions and how they work will make you a more powerful writer.…and it’s easy.

Download a copy of the fixed expressions worksheet and complete the tasks here academic-fixed-expressions-for-ielts

More fixed expressions from around the web
Nice Fixed Expressions Quiz with a video from ESL about
Good Expressions explained from Study Lib
Here’s an awesome audio on fixed expressions from Luke’s English Podcast

For more help with your IELTS writing, check out Richard L King’s Teach yourself IELTS writing

How to write a simple IELTS task 1 essay

2016-12-16T05:55:00.001-08:00

Talking heads - role play with masks - for teenagers and young adults

2012-06-25T01:30:00.004-07:00

Ok, so this is a bit off the wall but it is a quite a good laugh if you have a young class or students who have a sense of humour. This is a simple role-play class using masks of famous people.

How to run the class
The biggest part of getting this class to run successfully is how well you sell it to your students. It is a kind of drama activity and yes, it is a bit wet, but, your students will only think that if you don't sell it to them correctly.

Say and think this :Make no bones about it, speaking and using English language creatively are absolute cornerstones of learning a language and by delivering this class you are doing your job well and the students are learning.

Don't say or think this: this class is a bit of messing about where we all get to make up stupid dialogues and laugh at each other.

Development
Put students into groups of three and give them a copy of the masks from here: http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/masks-of-famous-and-interesting-people.docx. You can ask students to cut them out or stick them on cardboard if they're a little younger. If you can laminte them it will make them a little more durable. You can also cut out their eyes if you want, but you don't need to.

Tell your students they have ten minutes to make a dialogue, they are going to hold the masks in front of their faces and then speak as the famous or interesting person. They can use all of them, or just three of them, they can change their character at any time. They can use any subject they want as long as it's not rude or offensive.It all depends on you if you want them to write their dialogue down or just try to remember it. I get them to try and remember it and ad lib.

Write these three headings on the board and explain them to the class before they start:

Introduction: There needs to be a starting point, the characters can tell us where they are and what they are doing. Where are they? In the forest, at home, in their office? Tell us.

Conflict: There needs to be something that the characters have to come up against, they need some conflict to make the dialogue interesting. This could be against each other or something else. Are they at war? What problem do they have to solve? Do they have a problem with each other?

Resolution: Finally, whatever problem they have, there has to be a resolution. It has to finish and come to an end.

Now ask students to work together on their dialogue. Some groups won't be able to do this because they are not creative enough, you have to circulate and help them. Offer any ideas you come up with and encourage them. This is a crucial stage and if you don't help them a little bit, the results won't be great.

When students have made their dialogue, ask them to perform them for the rest of the class. If this is too hard, ask them to perfom it for another group.

Variations
I tried to pick people that my students would know but you could use any face you like. Just go to http://www.googleimages.com/ and search for 'famous person's name mask' and you'll find loads of faces that might be more relevant to your students.

Further ideas
You could video them doing this and stick on http://www.youtube.com/ .
You could use themes that you want them to develop. You could ask them to make a patient going to see the doctor role-play or a shopping role-play or anything that fits in with what you're studying.

Teaching English using anecdotes - some ideas

2012-06-25T01:29:00.001-07:00

An anecdote (to quote OALD) is a 'a short, interesting or amusing story about a real person or event'. They are a great way of learning English, they are fun, entertaining and whether you are listeing to them or telling them, they offer a real chance to practise language.

There are loads of ways you can use them in your class. First you need a good source of stories you can use.  Everybody has their own life stories and funny things that have happened to them, but, as a teacher you might not like to share what happened to you when you were fifteen or that blunder you made at a friend's wedding.I've pasted a nice one at the bottom of this blog post which I took from the fabulous ELC study zone. Here are three good places to get your anecdotes:

1. The local library. You'll find something if you look!
2. One Stop English has a whole section of anecdotes based around the classroom. Don't bother googling for stories, you'll just end up reading a lot of rubbish.
3. Get yourself a nice anecdote book from Amazon. I've pasted a few examples below
Anecdote Books

How to use anecdotes in the classroom.

1. Anecdote homework. Tell students a good, long anecdote (like the carpet fitter below) in your own words and explain to students that for homework, they have to find an anecdote to share with their partner in the next session. Explain that students won't have to tell the whole class (but they can if they want to) and will only have to tell their story to a partner. Also, remind them that anecdotes don't have to be true.

2. Anecdote reading and telling. Find two good anecdotes and print them out. Put your students into pairs and pass one the first story and the second to the other. Ask the students to read the anecdotes and understand what they mean. When both students have finished, ask them to turn over their anecdotes so they can't read them. Now students have to tell the anecdotes to each other from memory.

3. Finish the anecdote. Find a nice story and cut off the ending. You could use the one at the bottom of the blog. Get your students to read it and guess the ending.

Eddie the Carpet fitter (taken from ELC study zone )
Eddie was a carpet fitter, and he hated it. For ten years he had spent his days sitting, squatting, kneeling or crawling on floors, in houses, offices, shops, factories and restaurants. Ten years of his life, cutting and fitting carpets for other people to walk on, without even seeing them. When his work was done, no-one ever appreciated it. No- one ever said "Oh, that's a beautiful job, the carpet fits so neatly." They just walked all over it. Eddie was sick of it.
He was especially sick of it on this hot, humid day in August, as he worked to put the finishing touches to today's job. He was just cutting and fixing the last edge on a huge red carpet which he had fitted in the living room of Mrs. Vanbrugh's house. Rich Mrs. Vanbrugh, who changed her carpets every year, and always bought the best. Rich Mrs. Vanbrugh, who had never even given him a cup of tea all day, and who made him go outside when he wanted to smoke. Ah well, it was four o'clock and he had nearly finished. At least he would be able to get home early today. He began to day-dream about the weekend, about the Saturday football game he always played for the local team, where he was known as "Ed the Head" for his skill in heading goals from corner kicks.
Eddie sat back and sighed. The job was done, and it was time for a last cigarette. He began tapping the pockets of his overalls, looking for the new packet of Marlboro he had bought that morning. They were not there.
It was as he swung around to look in his toolbox for the cigarettes that Eddie saw the lump. Right in the middle of the brand new bright red carpet, there was a lump. A very visible lump. A lump the size of -- the size of a packet of cigarettes.
"Blast!" said Eddie angrily. "I've done it again! I've left the cigarettes under the blasted carpet!"
He had done this once before, and taking up and refitting the carpet had taken him two hours. Eddie was determined that he was not going to spend another two hours in this house. He decided to get rid of the lump another way. It would mean wasting a good packet of cigarettes, nearly full, but anything was better than taking up the whole carpet and fitting it again. He turned to his toolbox for a large hammer.
Holding the hammer, Eddie approached the lump in the carpet. He didn't want to damage the carpet itself, so he took a block of wood and placed it on top of the lump. Then he began to beat the block of wood as hard as he could. He kept beating, hoping Mrs. Vanbrugh wouldn't hear the noise and come to see what he was doing. It would be difficult to explain why he was hammering the middle of her beautiful new carpet.
After three or four minutes, the lump was beginning to flatten out. Eddie imagined the cigarette box breaking up, and the crushed cigarettes spreading out under the carpet. Soon, he judged that the lump was almost invisible. Clearing up his tools, he began to move the furniture back into the living room, and he was careful to place one of the coffee tables over the place where the lump had been, just to make sure that no-one would see the spot where his cigarettes had been lost. Finally, the job was finished, and he called Mrs. Vanbrugh from the dining room to inspect his work.
   "Young man," she began, as he climbed into the cab of his van, laying his toolbox on the passenger seat beside him, "while you were working today, you didn't by any chance see any sign of Armand, did you? Armand is my parakeet. A beautiful bird, just beautiful, such colors in his feathers... I let him out of his cage, you see, this morning, and he's disappeared. He likes to walk around the house, and he's so good, he usually just comes back to his cage after an hour or so and gets right in. Only today he didn't come back. He's never done such a thing before, it's most peculiar..."
     "No, madam, I haven't seen him anywhere," said Eddie, as he reached to start the van.
     And saw his packet of Marlboro cigarettes on the dashboard, where he had left it at lunchtime....
     And remembered the lump in the carpet....
     And realised what the lump was....
     And remembered the hammering....
     And began to feel rather sick....
MDH 1994 -- from a common urban legend

The Queen’s Jubilee – PowerPoint Lesson with vocab and chatting activities

2012-05-27T07:36:00.004-07:00

Queen Elizabeth II will soon have been the reigning monarch of the UK for 60 years. Here’s a ppt that I’ve been showing to my UK ESOL students so that they know what’s going on, and why there is so much ‘bunting’ around.

There’s no blog here – just click here to get the ppt. http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/the-queen_s-diamond-jubilee.pptx

Talking about paintings – Norman Rockwell – a .PPT cooler, warmer or filler

2012-05-04T09:23:00.000-07:00

Here’s another PowerPoint warmer, filler or cooler for your English lesson. If you can’t be bothered to read the short blog – download the ppt file here.

http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/rockwell.ppt

This week I’ve been talking about the paintings of the American painter Norman Rockwell. His pictures are great for generating conversation and speculation, although they are quite culturally ‘American’.

You can just show the ppt to your students, but it’s much better if you put students in pairs and ask them to answer the following questions.

- Describe what you see in the picture.

- Can you tell each other the ‘story’ in the picture?

Lots of these pictures reveal more about themselves the more you look at them and the story comes to life the more questions you ask. For example, why is the huge sailor getting another girl’s name tattooed on his arm? What is the expression on his face, it’s not happiness, is it?

Have fun

Why and how I changed my blog from Wordpress to Blogger.

2012-04-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

Don't have time to read?

If you haven't got time to read my thoughts here's the link to the conversion tool to change your blog from wordpress.com to blogger.com http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/

Unlike a lot of bloggers, I've decided to migrate my thoughts on teaching and education over to blogger.com from wordpress.com. I've been with wordpress for over two years and seen my blog grow reasonably big. So why change? There's more to lose than gain.

Why?

After a few weeks of blogger.com I feel a lot more comfortable with the format. I can edit my post with better fonts, the tabs at the top of the screen feel better and the range of wigits seems just as good, if not better than wordpress. But there's another, bigger reason why I decided to change and that comes down to one word 'ads'.

Ads

I also run a website called www.englishlanguagespacestation.com, it's not very pretty but it's where I house and share lots of worksheets for teaching and learning English. I run Google Adsense on some of the pages and make enough money to cover the cost of running the site. You can't put ads on wordpress and that didn't bother me until one day, I visited my wordpress site without logging on. At the bottom of the page I noticed an ad. It made me think. Why could wordpress put an ads and generate revenue, but I couldn't? Of course, wordpress run the site and so on and kindly allow me to use their services free but then again, so do Blogger.

How to do it.

I didn't have time to manually import all the posts from wordpress, so I googled around until I found a program that could do it for me and got some really helpful and clear instructions from http://wordpress2blogger.appspot.com/

So here I am.

More optical illusions- a PPT for your EFL / ESOL classroom

2012-03-12T06:36:00.001-07:00

This picture is not animated - it just looks like it's moving!

I've just found more another optical illusion powerpoint on my hard drive. I don't know where it came from! You'll need an IAWB or a projector to show it and it makes a great warmer, filler or cooler for your lessons.

Click the link below to download it.

OpticalIllusions : http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/opticalillusions.pptx

Dungeons and Dragons in the EFL classroom - a basic adventure 'Rescue the woodcutter's daughter'

2012-03-12T05:54:00.000-07:00

I played Dungeons and Dragons for many years as a teenager and enjoyed the role-play, the creation and the dice rolling and it's only recently that I've got back into the game. I've never taken it too seriously and so, I thought, why not try it with my EFL / ESOL students. After all, it is a game that requires a lot of talking, communication, reasoning, reading and even some writing - all the skills you need to use a language. This adventure wouldn't make a good lesson, it's something you could do as part of an English club or similar.

If you don't know what D and D is, and you've never played before, then this lesson is definitely not something you should try. You can visit the official D and D website to get a quick explaination. It's a role-playing game set in a swords and scorcery world where you control a 'character' and a 'dungeon master' controls the game.

Set up

I played the game with four pre-intermediate students. The first thing I did was give students a character sheets and quickly exlpain how to role-up a character. I used a great and very simple character sheet from here - http://rpgcharacters.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/dyson-logos-bx-character-sheet-small.jpg. I also had a the full range of D and D dice including the pyramid shaped D4 and the mystical D20. I filled in t he THACO and the saving rolls from my old D and D rule books.

Races students could choose - orc, human, elf, dwarf, hobbit, half-elf

Classes students could choose - warrior, hunter (ranger), thief, (no magic users to keep it simple)

Making characters took ages and ages, it required explanation of tradition equipment and an overview of what a role-playing game is, some of my students had never played an RPG before and it took a while to explain to them that they could make their character do whatever they wanted. It's probably best just to start the adventure.

Playing the adventure

Again, if you've never played D and D and don't know the rules - this will be meaningless. Players arrive at the woodcutter's house on the map at the top left. Here they find the woodcutter, a tall blond man in his fourties, he's bitterly upset because his daughter has been kidnapped by goblins and taken into their cave. The woodcutter explains that the goblins live deep in the cave under the mountain in what was once a great dwarven city, now in ruins. Hopefully players will take on the task of rescuing his daughter.

They follow the path around the great lake to the entrance of the cave with two bronze statues of ancient kings standing outside. Inside and after they come to a wooden door which is locked. They can try to smash it down provided anyone has strength of more than 16. If they knock the door will be answered by the four goblin guards inside. Player need to fight their way past them. Players get 200 xp for any goblin they hit.

After the small goblin guard room, players encounter a giant spider. Details of this beast are on the map above. If they kill the spider there are four D6 healing potions in a chest near its web. Anyone who hits the spider gets 200 xp.

Players go through the next door into the gobin king's throne room. Here there are four goblin guards a nd the goblin king himself to fight. Any player that hits a goblin guard will get 250 xp and anyone who hits the goblin king will get 300xp. The players will find the woodcutter's daughter tied up in the corner if they win the fight and also some treasure in the chest near the goblin king's makeshift throne. If they search, they will find the secret door that will quickly lead them back to the woodcutter.

The adventure ends when the players return the woodcutter's daughter to him. He has no reward to give but players all get 500xp for finishing the adventure. That should give them enough xp to go up a level.

Notes

D and D is perhaps a little too complex for first time role-player, unfortunately it's the only RPG I know anything about.

Some students will not be able to do this, not because they don't have the lingusitic skill but because they lack the imagination or creativity.

Links

I looked for other ESL teachers playing D and D only and here's what I found. There aren't too many of us.

A blog thread on playing D and D in the classroom http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/273198-d-d-classroom.html

How D and D made me a better teacher http://randomology.org/2011/04/how-dungeons-and-dragons-made-me-a-better-teacher/

Nice ideas on running D and D in your classroom here http://waygook.org/index.php?topic=24517.0

Describing People - A quick ppt show

2012-02-28T05:41:00.000-08:00

Here's another PowerPoint show with loads of different types of faces and people for your students to describe. I've put down a few ideas on how you could get more out of it below, but if you just want to get straight to the content, click below.

Portraits http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/portraits.pptx

How to run this lesson
This ppt will work best to help practise vocab and structures used to describe people. You can pretty much use it with any level, higher students will be able to say more and lower students will be able to say something like 'He's got...'

1. Split your students into pairs and explain that the first student is number one and the second number two. Tell them that they are going to have two minutes to describe the face/person to their partner. Depending on how good your students are you might like to have them focus on one special aspect of the person, such as
- What they look like
- What their life history might be
- What their personality migfht be like.

2. Now show the PPT to students. Student 1 will talk about the first picture, then you tell them to 'swap' and the second student will describe the next picture. Repeat this until the end of the slide show.

3. When students have finished you can feedback on the language that you heard students producing (negatively or positively) or scroll back up to some of the more intereting faces and ask individual student to tell you what they think.

Here's the PPT file again : http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/portraits.pptx

Create your own Superhero! - A computer room lesson using PPT for teenagers and younger learners.

2012-02-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="315" caption="Thanks to mhealthwatch.com for the image"][/caption]

I've been teaching functional skills IT this year to my pre-intermediate teenage ESOL learners and the materials we have to use with them are fightningly dull. Here's a lesson I knocked up for them on designing your own superhero using PowerPoint and the superb super hero generator http://www.ugo.com/games/superhero-generator-heromachine-2-5 . The worksheet asks them to design a PowerPoint show around a superhero that they create or research,and broadly speaking, covers their IT requirements as well. Getting students to work in pairs and to present their show to the rest of the class adds a bit more fun and well-meaning speaking practise.

Here the worksheet: Make your own Superhero http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/make-your-own-superhero.docx

How to run the lesson.
For this pre-intermediate – intermediate lesson you will need.
- Computers that can connect to the internet with PowerPoint installed, preferably one between two students.
- Some way to show the student PowerPoint presentations to the class, such as a projector or and IAWB.

1. Write the name of a superhero you like on the board, like Spiderman or Superman. Ask students to tell you about him. Ask ‘What can he do?’ Generate discussion on what powers the person has, where they live, who they fight and so on. You might also like to show students something from youtube.com

2. Now explain that students are going to make a PowerPoint presentation about a superhero they create, they are then going to show this to the rest of the class and answer any questions asked.

3. Pass students a copy of the worksheet and ask them to read through before they start. Make sure students understand what you want them to do before they start.

4. Now ask students to work in pairs to create a superhero. Set a time limit of 20 minutes and make this the deadline for students to email you the presentation. Monitor students constantly to make sure they are on task and to discuss any superhero problems they might have.
***Some students might not have the creative spirit to do this, in this case you can ask them to make the same presentation about an existing Superhero from this list: Batman, Superman, Spiderman, Captain America, The Hulk, Thor, Wolverine, Iron Man or any other superhero they like!***

5. After the time is up or everyone has finished, ask each pair to come to the front of the class and explain/show their presentations to everyone. If time, encourage questions and ask a few yourself.

*This lesson will only work if students are familiar with the concept of a superhero as a western ‘hero’. Many cultures across the world do enjoy American films and students who are familiar with the genre will find this task easy to understand. Students not familiar with the genre will be confused and this won’t be a good task for them.

*If you think that creating a super hero will be too much of a difficult task them you could ask students to research an existing superhero that they already know.

Here's the worksheet again http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/make-your-own-superhero.docx

Riddles for the English classroom

2012-02-07T09:16:00.000-08:00

I've just found these old riddles on my hard drive and thought I'd share them.

Click here for the PowerPoint show http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/riddles-for-the-english-classroom.ppt

They'll provide a quick bit of speaking practice for pre-intermediate to intermediate EFL, ESOL or ESL students and you'll need to have an Interactive whiteboard or a projector to show the PPT show.

Put your students into pairs and ask them to discuss the riddles one by one before you reveal the answers. You might also find that students have their own riddles they would like to share with you and the rest of the class.

I can't remember where I found all of these, but three of them (numbers 3,7 and 8) come from the amazing and seminal English teaching book 'Challenge to Think' by Christine Frank, Mario Rinvolucri and Marge Berer' first published in 1982.

Here's the ppt file again http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/riddles-for-the-english-classroom.ppt

for more of the same visit

www.englishlanguagespacestation.com

Quarrel - A first rate educational game that almost never got made.

2012-02-05T08:23:00.000-08:00

My small family uploaded 'Quarrel' from Xbox live a few days ago because it was free. It's a mixture of the old board game 'Risk' and 'Scrabble', players have to make better words than their opponents to take over their part of the map. The person who controls the whole map wins.

As a teacher and someone who is professionally interested in education and particularly e-learning, I was loathe to spend Friday night making words with my kids. I would have preferred some real action, involving zombies or motorbikes, but Quarrel won us all over pretty quickly. To my amazement I found myself buying Quarrel for 400 Xbox live points (about £3.25) and we've been playing all weekend.

It's hard to believe then, that Quarrel was nearly never released. Developed by Denki it was rejected time after time by leading games publishers because they did not think a word game would be interesting enough to make money. (see the full article here http://uk.xboxlive.ign.com/articles/121/1217197p1.html) Games publisher didn't think like me, did they? Did they think that games that aren't full of action won't make money?

Actually, Quarrel is full of action, but it's based around making words so you can defeat and kill enemy soldiers. The action depends on how well you can make words from a number of different letters.

My son already knew how to spell the word 'who' and when he used it in battle he was overjoyed to find out how powerful it was. There's your education, right there. You learn this so you can do this.

We need more games like Quarrel, so before they do get made, lets support this great game. If you've got an Xbox and are hooked up to Xbox live, search for it in the Arcade section and download it.

The Vampire Lesson

2012-02-02T02:46:00.000-08:00

Here's another lesson for your ESOL, ESL or EFL students tapping the now mainstream interest in Vampires. Get the worksheet straight away by clicking here - http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/the-vampire-lesson.doc

Whether your students enjoyed the seminal video game Vampire: The Masquerade - bloodlines a few years ago or they enjoy The Twilight series of films or the TV shows True Blood or The Vampire Diaries, this lesson might be up their street.

Not everyone likes vampires, so I'd suggest you be careful with this one. Don't use it with kids or those that are easily offended. Culturally, these kind of vampires are very 'western' and so if your students are not familiar with modern, American mythology then this probably won't work. The Chinese have their own versions of vampires and so do a lot of other cultures...

There's no special way to run the lesson, just follow the activities on the worksheet. There are broken lines around the worksheet so you can cut the sections up with a pair of scissors if you don't want students to do it all at once.

Here's the worksheet again - http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/the-vampire-lesson.doc

Banksy - Graffiti PowerPoint Presentation and Discussion

2012-01-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

Here's the Banksy PowerPoint show http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/banksy.pptx

Many many years ago when I lived and taught in the industrial town of Szolnok, Hungary. Someone wrote a very large bit of graffiti across the bottom of our tower-block. In big, white letters, at least a foot high, the artist wrote 'I'm still love you'. Ever since then, I've been on the look out for incorrect English in graffiti, something with isn't confined to places that don't speak English as their first language.

Here's a PowerPoint presentation for intermediate learners on the much loved and hyped graffiti artist, Banksy.http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/banksy.pptx

I'd highly recommend his website http://www.banksy.co.uk/ and his book 'Wall and Piece'. Instructions on how to run the lesson are below.

1. Before you start ask students what they think about graffiti in general, do they think it's art or just vandalism? You might like to talk about any specific bits of graffiti you all know about.

2. Put students into groups or pairs and show them the slide show. Get them to discuss the following questions for each picture.

1.Describe the picture to each other?

2.Is there anything strange about the picture? What?

3. Is the picture trying to tell us anything political

3. When students have seen and discussed all the pictures, go through them again and elict any interesting information from the students. Lots of the pictures ARE political and need quite a lot of explaining.

ELT course books that will never get published

2012-01-10T01:42:00.001-08:00

Here's my list of EFL courseboks that will never get published.

1. GunPoint - A new pre-intermediate course book dealing with all aspects of international criminal English. 10 hard hitting chapters cover vital criminal skills such as extortion, weapon vocabulary, hacking, robbery and how to deal with police interrogation. The free DVD contains twenty of cinema's finest criminal moments from movies like The Godfather and Pulp Fiction.

2. Hat Trick - International football player English, includes comprehensive swearing index. Specialist chapters deal with telling lies to your partner, having a diva strop like a man and advanced press conference skills.

3. Spirit Level - Builder's English including a pull-out section on dirty jokes and chapters on how to avoid paying tax.

4. Pick Up - how to attract and pick up member of the opposite sex in English. Includes a section on body language and social etiquette. Also including a large selection of chat-up lines.

5. Boiling Point- all aspects of cookery, equipment and brutal swearing included in this intermediate course for English learners with an interest in the kitchen

6. Darling! I love it! - An intermediate course book for English learners who need to know everything about the fashion industry with sections on substance abuse, catfights, bitchy gossip and frocks.

7. International Geek English - for those learners who need to be able to discuss physics, comics and the combat system for the 4th edition of dungeons and dragons. This course book includes how to use the Socratic method of discussion, witty put-downs and search engine techniques containing Boolean logic.

8. Cheers! - Drinking English. From the earthy, base language of the backstreet public house to the refined, gentile prose of the English country pub, this three-part course book covers what to say in almost every type of drinking establishment in the world, with chapters on anecdotes, pretending to be interested and how to deal with hangovers.

Any more ideas?

The Google Translate Challenge

2011-12-05T05:47:00.000-08:00

Language students routinely turn to the web to do their translating and there's not much better than Google Translate. It effortlessly handless data and will translate into different scripts like Arabic and Russian, it can even translate some idiomatic phrases. It's still a long way from being perfect, however and it gets a lot wrong.

I wanted to see if my human students could do better that the automated, super fast machine that is Google Translate. Here's what I did.

1. I found a simple story, wrote it out in English and then pasted it into Google translate. I then translated it into the languages that my ESOL students can speak, Swahili, Arabic, Polish, Russian, Latvian, Hungarian and French.

2. In class, I handed students a copy of the story in their language and asked them to try and translate it into English. If there were two students, I asked them to team up and try to translate the story together. I told them where I got the translations and that there might be some mistakes in, but they should try to translate it the best they can. Also, before they started I pre-taught the word 'worth' and gave them some example sentences, this word is the key to the whole story.

3. As a group, I now asked them to shout out their translations, sentence by sentence before I showed them a copy of the real story in English.

Here's the story I used and a link at the bottom to the translations from Google Translate.

Joe and the rich man

Joe was in a bar when a rich man came up to him.The rich man looked very healthy and sun tanned. He wore an expensive black suit and a silk tie. He looked at Joe with a frown.

“How much do think I’m worth?” said the richman.

“I don’t know,” said Joe.

“Come on, guess how much I’m worth.”

“Okay,” said Joe, “I think you’re worth $100”The rich man laughed.

“Ha, that’s just the priceof my suit.”

“I included that in my answer,” said Joe.

Here's the link to the translated versions: http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/the-google-translate-challenge.doc

Online reading tasks - How e-learning can save paper - no kidding

2011-11-29T07:46:00.000-08:00

My English language students need to read a lot - fact, and I often want them to read something quickly which they can discard when they finish. What I don't want to do however is photocopy the same thing for each student only to have them read it once and then file it away neatly never to be seen again.(or more likely, thrown it in the bin.)

Here's where technology can help.

Armed with their smartphones that can access the internet students can read a wide range of material quickly and without wasting resources. (except maybe their monthly bandwith allowance)

Online Reading Tasks
I put my students into pairs and gave them the urls below. I then told them to go away and use their smartphones or any device that could access the internet to read the three stories and come up with three endings ...each ending being a single sentence or even just a word.

Story 1 - Joe and the tigers

http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/joe-and-the-tigers-read-the-story-and-write-the-last-line/

Write your ending to the story in one sentence here:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Story 2 - Joe and the hairdresser

http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/joe-and-the-hairdresser-read-the-story-and-write-the-last-line/

Write your ending to the story in one sentence here:

------------------------------------------------------------------

Story 3 - The workman and the beggar

http://chrisspeck.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/quick-stories-2-the-workman-and-the-beggar/

Write your ending to the story in one sentence here:

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Suggested answers

A good ending for story one - 'I know, it works really well."

A good ending for story two - 'I'm the one who has to look at it all day.'

A good ending for story three - 'No'.

Further thoughts

When are we going to see 'electronic paper'? By this I mean a cheap, simple device that can use either a wi-fi or USB connection to show written content to students. I don't mean a set of expenisve laptops (or even a computer) or a trendy handheld device,I mean a cheap bit of plastic that will show words and pictures, that can be thrown around and used over and over and over again to show documents. Think of the amount of money that could be saved on paper. You'd never need to print exams, worksheets or home made books, or stories, or timetables

...actually, if students already have a smartphone then they've got this already.

Joe and the Hairdresser - read the story and write the last line.

2011-11-29T07:34:00.000-08:00

Joe’s wife was an ugly woman. She had horrible eyes a big nose and fat lips. One day she decided that if she had a nice haircut it would make her more beautiful. So Joe took her to the hairdresser.

When the hairdresser had finished he held up a mirror so that Joe’s wife could look at herself. She looked in the mirror and saw her ugly face. She saw her big nose and horrible eyes. She started to cry. Joe started crying as well. The hairdresser tried to calm them both down. He said he would give them a refund for the hair cut, but Joe would not stop crying.
Then Joe’s wife became angry.
“Will you shut up?” she said. “I’m the one with an ugly face”
“I know,” said Joe, “ _______________________________ .”

Joe and the tigers - read the story and write the last line

2011-11-29T07:28:00.000-08:00

One day one of Joe’s neighbours visited him.
Joe was standing outside his house with a bag of salt. He was throwing the salt over the front of his garden.

“What are you doing Joe?” asked the neighbour.

“I’m trying to keep the tigers away.”

The neighbour looked shocked.
“But there are no tigers near here?”

“_________________________.”

The zombie lesson - reading and discussion lesson for Halloween

2011-08-26T07:07:00.001-07:00

Can't be bothered to read the blog? I wouldn't bother either, here's the worksheet: http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/the-zombie-lesson.doc

I quite like zombie films and most of my pre-intermediate and intermediate students do as well. Here is a three part Zombie lesson to get them talking and reading about the most popular undead monster in modern culture.

Pre- reading. - You can dictate these questions or cut them up and ask students to read them together

Reading - You could dictate a few comprehension questions about this or blank out a few of the words to make it a gap fill exercise.

Discussion - ask students in pairs to make their own zombie apocalypse plan outlining what they and their partner would do to survive the zombies. I put a few sentences students could finish but they could write anything. Help them out by giving them some ideas. What would they do if there really was a zombie threat? Would they go to the supermarket to get food, the DIY store to get weapons? Where would they go long term? How would they really survive?

****WARNING**** I wouldn't do this lesson with students who aren't familiar with the Zombie genre, younger students or students who wouldn't like this kind of thing.

Here's the worksheet again http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/the-zombie-lesson.doc

Let me know if this lesson worked or not.

More of the same from: www.englishlanguagespacestation.com

Real life spelling mistakes - PowerPoint

2011-06-27T05:50:00.000-07:00

It's good to know that people across the English speaking world make spelling mistakes. Some of them, then take the time to print these mistakes or paint them on signs or even tattoo them on their body. Here's the powerpoint

http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/real-life-spelling-mistakes.ppt

This is a quick PowerPoint show for pre-intermediate to intermediate learners with a lot of real life spelling mistakes. Show it to your students and ask them to find the mistakes and then correct them. Answers below

1. closed 2. mistakes 3. order 4. required/experience/preferred 5. professional 6. February 7. the first 'to' should be 'too'. 8. teachers 9. school 10.stop 11. illegal 12. exceptions 13. 'past' should be 'passed'

You can find more lessons like this at www.englishlanguagespacestation.com

Learning English with Britain's Got Talent

2011-04-17T05:55:00.000-07:00

Can't be bothered to read the blog? Get the worksheet here.

http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/britains-got-talent-lesson-plan.doc

Get more lessons like this at the English Language Space Station.com

Like so many, I have a love/hate relationship with The X-factor and Britain's Got Talent. I like watching it... but I hate watching it. I'll leave any descriptions as to how bad it is and how it is destroying the music business to those with more fire in their belly. I'm only concerned with how we can use it to teach English.

Here's the lesson.

1. Talk about the x -factor / Britain's Got Talent / Pop Idol. It's all over the world and in every country. Dictate these questions.

- Do you have the X-Factor, Britain's Got Talent or something similar, in your country?

- Do you like it? Why?

- Would you appear on a show like this? What would you do? Sing? Dance?

- Do you think it's good or bad for young people to appear on talent shows like this?

2. Students read about the show and them fill in the worksheet about giving feedback. Get the worksheet here http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/britains-got-talent-lesson-plan.doc

3.Play some songs from youtube - students watch them and then comment on them very much like the judges in the show. You might also like to give students a card or a book which they can hold up when they are sick of watching the presentation.

The Royal Wedding ppt - a quick ten minute chat for your intermediate English class.

2011-04-13T05:49:00.000-07:00

Can be bothered to read the short post? - download the Royal Wedding PPT here. (can you find the puctuation error?)

It's the most important wedding since the last important wedding but, like it or loathe it Prince William's marriage to Kate is big news and it might be a good subject to get your students chatting.

Here's my own royal wedding powerpoint that I've been using with my students. Click here to download the powerpoint.

Royal wedding lessons on the net

Breaking News English has a good Royal Wedding lesson here http://www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1102/110218-royal_wedding.html

The TES has a few Royal Wedding lessons but you have to be a member http://www.tes.co.uk/teaching-resource/Royal-Wedding-Procession-Route-6073740/

Some great material for the Royal Wedding here at Michelle Henry http://www.michellehenry.fr/williamkate.htm

Really good lesson plans and a PowerPoint show from Guardian Teaching Resources, discussing, among many things constitutional changes. You must be a member to view these. http://teachers.guardian.co.uk/resources.aspx?q=The%20Royal%20Wedding

Good Wordgames as warmers / fillers or coolers from your English class.

2011-03-15T09:17:00.000-07:00

In need of a quick warmer / filler or cooler for a lesson? Don't turn your nose up at word games, they are quick, easy and give students vital spelling and word practice.

Make words from these letters
This is an old favourite. Find a long word like 'democracy' and draw all the letters in a box like this:

d	r	c
a	e	o
c	y	m

Now get students to make as many words as they can from only these letters. You can use almost any long word you like

Make sentences from this box
Just the same as the above, but rather than using letters you use words and get students to make sentences. Like this:

jumped	fox	fence	fit	because
to	lazy	he	wanted	get
the	over	white	The	brown

The sentence is : The lazy brown fox jumped over the white fence because he wanted to get fit.

Put the sentences in the correct order
Another old favourite is putting words in the right order in a sentence. Even though this quite dry and boring -lots of language students, especially those who use a different written script, need to practise their handwriting - even just forming the letters. An activity like this allows students to do this as well as testing their sentence skills.

Here's my sample PowerPoint for arranging mixed up sentences, save it and change the words to whatever you like http://chrisspeck.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/arrange-the-sentences-directions.ppt

Online wordgames to show on your IAWB
Of course, the internet is abound with word games you can play in your browser. Send these to students as homework, play them in the computer room (in pairs is best) or play them together in the classroom on the interactive whiteboard or projector.

BBC Skillswise - many great word games here http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/spelling/

Blocks with Letters on 3 - Amazing game to play with the class http://www.gimme5games.com/play-game/blocks-with-letters-on-3

Bookworm - make words from letters - very nice - http://www.popcap.com/gamepopup.php?theGame=bookworm