This show starts off with a quick discussion about the new teacher tips video blog that Matt has put together on DreamEnglish.com called the Teach Kids English Show.  They are short 3-4 minute videos packed full of tips for teachers that are teaching young learners.

Talking briefly about MES-English‘s 5th anniversary on the web, Matt brings in the show’s main topic, Dolch Sight Words.  We first go over briefly what sight words are for those that are unfamiliar and then discuss how Matt found them to be inspiring and exciting in some classes where phonics-only was failing.  For Matt’s class they really sped up reading and the learning process.

Mark has taken the original list and made a graded and short version for his ESL classes.  You can find those downloads and a more in-depth explanation of the lists on the MES Dolch Sight Words Resources page.

We also go over:

• when to start using sight words
• the importance of knowing the word before memorizing the spelling
• using a book to create a list of sight words and then immediately applying knowledge to context to inspire your readers
• 5 different games and activities you can use in your classes to practice sight words

Thanks for listening!

This week we welcome Dave from http://www.learnenglish-online.com.  Dave is working at a language school and international high school in Canada.  Additionally he runs his own website for students to “learn English online.”  We’ll talk a bit about his website and also in general about website building/promotion later in the show.
In part one of the podcast, we focus on some of Dave’s students’ problems and how he handles them.  He has a good number of Japanese students and they have a strong knowledge of grammar but a very low speaking level.  Mark and Dave offer a few ideas on how to improve speaking competence and fluency with these learners.

• breaking down the walls and barriers
• stopping the calculating and perfect sentence building
• reading to increase speaking competence
• using music and acting
• understanding errors are not necessarily mistakes

In the second part of the podcast we discuss Dave’s website.  It offers students listening exercises with videos and music, help with grammar, quizzes, and provides them with a lot of feedback.  The website is growing and the response has been positive for Dave.  Mark and Dave also discuss a bit about how Dave built up the site and any mistakes people might want to avoid in make their own site.  There are also some tips for promoting your ESL website or blog and getting more traffic.

Right at the end, we had some technical problems and I lost Dave, but Dave was kind enough to email me the Game of the Week section of the show that got cut off.

If you have any questions or comments about teaching students with advanced grammar but low speaking competence or if you have any questions about building and promoting your ESL site, please comment below or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums.

We’d like to thank Dave for coming on to the show and encourage everyone to visit his site Learn English – Online.

Game of the Week: Speedy Subject Verb Agreement

This game is used to practice subject verb agreement in conversation.  It is also designed to improve fluency and speed when speaking.

* Put the students in partners
* Write these categories on the board:

1. Do/Does
2. Is/Are/Am
3. Have/Has
4. Was/Were
5. Doesn’t/Don’t
6. Wasn’t/Weren’t

* Student A randomly says pronouns to Student B.  (I, You, He, She, It, We, They)
* Student B must say the correct verb that matches with the pronoun.

Example: Round 1

Student A:  He
Student B:  does
Student A:  We
Student B:  do
Student A:  They
Student B:  do

* After 7-10 words, the partners switch.  After switching, they go to round 2.
* Students are trying for perfection, and then to develop speed.
* Make sure they say the pronouns randomly to avoid developing a pattern in their speaking.

Another option is to put the students into two groups and the teacher says the pronouns.  Working through each round with one pronoun for each student, the two teams can have a competition to see which is the fastest.

This game works very well for students who know simple subject verb agreement on tests and in writing, but sometimes make mistakes when speaking.  It is also very good to promote speed for students who still speak at a slow pace.  In general, it makes students think and speak quickly, which gets their brains really working hard.
Thanks for listening!

Even though it’s February, happy New Year!  Valentine’s Day is on the way and Mark has a new site with some cool teacher tools.  Print With My Pic.com allows you to add your photo to cards, calendars or certificates.  Since Valentine’s is just around the corner, why not send your Valentine a card with your photo!

This week’s show is about teaching holidays.  Every time a holiday rolls around it seems like we should be teaching or working with those holidays and seasons.  This show we discuss ways to teach holidays with beginners to advanced students.

• new vocabulary or vocabulary that doesn’t go well in other places
• low level classes, crafts and activities for these classes
• worksheet and listening ideas
• using the holidays as a chance to teach a bit about different cultures
• using the holiday to dress up your current content
• working with readings or holiday backgrounds
• advanced speaking tasks associated with holidays
• using video segments from Hollywood for discussion
• discussing the differences between how holidays are celebrated in different places around the world

For Valentine’s and other holiday materials, check out the teacher printables at MES-English.com.

If you have any other tips or advice for other teachers out there on teaching holidays, we’d love to hear from you. Please post your comments here or over on the ESL Teacher Talk forums!

 

Game of the Week: Last Card out
This is a simple vocabulary review game or for practice after drilling.  You just need your flashcards and a group of students.  We also explain how this game can be adapted for use with small children to adults.

Thanks for listening!

Christmas is upon us … ho! ho! ho! Merry Christmas everybody!  Tis the season, so Matt has a new Christmas Song for you to download and use in your classes: Merry Christmas!  It’s a play-like song with speaking, actions and a matching picture book!  There are a few more resources discussed that are available for download from MES.  You can find all those here, MES Christmas, if you are interested.

This week’s show is about motivating your students.  Matt goes over his three keys for motivation your students and Mark comments and adds two more areas to think about in your lessons.

• self motivation
• when to encourage and when to challenge
• setting up the right classroom environment
• choosing an appropriate theme and format
• using testing to motivate

If you have any other tips or advice for other teachers out there about motivating students, we’d love to hear from you.  Please post your comments here or over on the ESL Teacher Talk forums!

Game of the Week: the Knock Out Race

This is a new board game from Tools for Educators that you can completely customize with images, text only or a mixture of both.  It’s different than most board games out there in that it’s a loop.  So you can practice your content several times and even increase the difficulty or add new tasks with the same content.  It has been a big success in my classes and I hope your students enjoy it!

Thanks for listening!

This show was recorded back in the summer and a few shows got bumped up, so if you feel we’ve gone back in time, I guess we have But first, we of course have some new things on the web to talk about …  Check those out at the end of the show notes.

Teaching toddlers:

This show goes over some basic problems that come up in teaching classes with 1-3 year olds: short attention spans, running around the room, eating your materials, high expectations of the parents and more.  Each problem is addressed and a few ideas for dealing with each are discussed.

More advice and focus is given to the actual planning and running of the classes:

• language production and what to expect
• handling zero production
• eliciting language from this group
• activities: what do they like
• activities: what qualities do they like
• vocabulary: how to introduce it
• working with music and actions
• play and explore vs. teaching at them
• how to motivate them

Quite a bit in this show and we hope some of it is helpful if it’s not all applicable.

If you have anything to add to the show, your own advice or questions, please let us know.  Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Forums.  We’d love to hear from you!

Thanks for listening!

New materials from Matt and Mark:
Matt has a new phonics section with Touch and Say phonics over at Dream English.  There are chants to download, worksheets, flashcards and more.  Check those out!

Mark has a new site, 123 Print Calendars.com.  You can make custom calendars for you classroom or for home.  Enter events, class schedules, vacations, students’ birthdays, whatever.  All the text is 100% customizable.

There are all kinds of themes to choose from.  I hope you are able to find something you like.

Happy fall everybody!

We’ll get back to fall and Halloween for the games of the week, but Matt has some great news for you.  He’s finished and launched Dream English volume 3.  There is a download pack on his website and it contains all of the songs from the 3 CDs plus a few bonus songs (over 45 songs.)  You can also just get the new CD from there as well.
This show deals with teaching communication strategies. We discuss ideas and tips to teach to students, especially teens, about how to be a better conversationalist.  So while it’s not really teaching them English, you will be teaching them how to involve themselves better in conversation and keep conversations going.  The main points Mark covers in the podcast are:

• using questions
• follow up questions
• feeding the conversation content
• not killing, but keeping the conversation
• keeping everyone involved
• how to move forward from negative responses
• attacking the conversation and not being passive

There are bits and pieces in there about how to adapt these ideas to children’s lessons.  We also discuss some ideas and advice for helping quiet students.

There are 4 activities mentioned toward the end of the show to help apply some of these concepts in your lessons.
If you have any questions of comments about the show, please post them here or over on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums at MES-English. We’d love to hear from you.

Games of the week:  It’s a mummy. You’re it!

I just made that name up, but this week Matt has a Halloween theme game that uses some flashcards and game cards from MES-English’s Halloween set.  Using a few cards and playing some Halloween music, you can have a lot of fun selecting students for different language tasks or it can be a knock out game you use at a Halloween party.

There are two more games mentioned that are just party games and might be fun for you to use with your students.

Thanks for listening!

Mark starts off the show with a description of a few new things MES English has to offer its users.  In the show Mark has gone over his speaking first curriculum and now some of that is listed on the MES English website with links to all of the resources and additional resources you might need.

There are also some new teaching videos at MES-TV.  There are straight vocabulary videos, questions and answer videos as well as interactive question only videos. These are great for non-native teachers and teachers that just want to expose their students to another voice.  Check them out – http://tv.mes-english.com

This show deals with teaching the past tense. The main points of the podcast are:

• when should we teach the past tense?/What age is too young?
• How do Mark and Matt introduce the past tense to students
• what are some ways in the beginning to avoid the complications of irregular verbs
• ideas for content when teaching the past tense
• how to practice the past tense

There are quite a few games and activities listed in the show, 4-5, I believe.  So, this show there is no designated game of the week section, but we hope some of the activities mentioned in the show will give you something to work with.

If you have any questions of comments about the show, please post them here or over on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums at MES-English.  We’d love to hear from you.

Thanks for listening!

Matt has a few new songs on Dream English for younger children (shapes and more.)  There’s also a little discussion on the benefits of using children’s songs .

Dream English has 40+ free downloadable chants.  They are very popular for teaching languages and Matt and Mark go over teaching with chants.  The main points of the podcast are:

• what are chants, why use them, and what are the benefits
• differences between chants and songs in teaching
• how chants are used in class
• an example of a chant – ‘Days of the Week‘
• ideas you can use to add to chants sections of the lesson
• ideas for adding chants to different sections of your existing lesson plans

Matt added a free simple background beat clip for ETT listeners!  You can use the file to create your chants for anything.

Later in the show, Mark discusses sentence reduction and incresing student fluency.  He explains in adult classes how teachers can use some chanting to increase speed, fluency and pronounciation.
If you have some ideas to add or questions about the show, please post your questions and comments here or at the ESL Teacher Talk Forums.

Game of the Week: the Chanting Game

Matt brings the game of the week this week.  It can be very simple or use more complicated language structures.  It can be used with classes of 6 and up and is a whole lot of fun.  Many variations of the activity are discussed as well.  Give it a try and let us know how it goes!

A challenge for listeners.  What’s a better end to this sentence than Mark’s off-the-cuff  response:

“I have a bird and her name is …”

Thanks for listening!

The show starts off with unseasonable weather and a circus but moves quickly into this show’s theme, the present continuous.

Matt and Mark go over:

• presenting the target language orally
• why teach the present continuous early on in your curriculum
• teaching and explaining the grammar using only English
• forming questions and negatives
• Teaching short answers, or that is to say not teaching short answers, but the ‘reduced’ answers.

Towards the end, Mark goes over quite a few games that can be used to practice the present continuous.  The games were mentioned fairly quickly, but a couple that have further explanations can be found here: Go Fish, Memory, Slap, board games, and Bounce Around
If you have some ideas to add or questions about the show, please post your questions and comments here or at the ESL Teacher Talk Forums.

Game of the Week: the Skit Kit
This is an activity that focuses on creating stories, short dialogs and can be built up into skits or role plays for the students to perform.  This activity can be used with large classes and works well all the way down to one-on-one classes.  Mark goes over how to use the Skit Kit to accomplish the activity goals, but if you don’t want to use the actual kit, that’s no problem and Mark explains how.

The activity has many parts and it’s also great for introducing focused target language.  We hope you and your students enjoy it.

Thanks for listening!

Matt has added some new simple easy songs for 1-3 year old classes.
Mark and Matt cover creating thematic units.  This show covers what a thematic unit is, what the goals of a thematic unit should be, and what you need to get your thematic unit off the ground.

Mark covers the city, food and animals as examples of thematic units and we hope that gives you so ideas for introducing vocabulary, working in target language, and working in role-plays.  There are also some discussion on the benefits and reasons behind why a thematic unit is beneficial.

If you have some ideas to add or questions about the show, please post your questions and comments here or at  the ESL Teacher Talk Forums.

Game of the Week:  a Shopping Game

This is a game that can be worked into thematic units such as shopping!  Using flashcards or slips of paper with items written on the cards and play money, students have to buy and sell items using language centered around shopping and bargaining.

Mark has added some phonics games for students at Fun Fonix.com.
This show discusses MES-English.com‘s curriculum for young learners. This is the second part of teaching without a textbook or teaching oral English only.  For the first episode of this check here.

The curriculum covers core sections:

• content – vocabulary
• target language – phrases, questions, speech acts …
• running content – more lengthy topics
• TPR – vocabulary introduction
• Phonics – phonics, reading, spelling …

Mark covers Units 4-6, explaining what vocabulary he uses for the content section, why he chooses those and how they work to achieve the target language goals for each unit, and how those vocabulary units tie into the target language.  There are also a few ideas for practicing the different parts.
The materials for this curriculum are all available for free from MES-English.com.

• flashcards
• worksheets
• phonics resources
• games
• more …

We’d love to hear how you use you MES-English resources or your own curriculum ideas. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show. You can also just pop-in and introduce yourself. We’d love to know who’s listening.

Thanks for listening!

Game of the Week: Flashcards and Board Games
This is an activity for making a board game more of a conversational activity.  Using a board game for practicing simple vocabulary or one taget language and combining that with another target language to form mini-speech acts.  This is a great activity for changing a board game into a communicative activity and is useful for adults down to elementary school students.  You can make boardgames here and get free printable flashcards here.
We hope it helps.  Happy teaching!

• you can’t speak the language
• you have a mixed background class (many L1s)
• your administration forbids the use of the students native language
• you simply decide it’s best for the students

If you fit into any of these categories, this show might be helpful.
Mark and Matt cover ideas on how to get explain games or activities without translating.  There are examples on how to explain some tradition American kids games, ideas for beginner classes, advice on how to strip activities down but still provide structure for learning, advice for more complicated games, higher level students and ideas on how to do this with large groups.

We also briefly cover some of the benefits to using an all-English explanation in your lessons.

A couple games were mentioned in the show: Go Fish and Get Four.
If you have any additions, questions or comments on the show please post them here or over at the ESl teacher Talk forums.  We’re listening!

Game of the Week: What’s your name musical chairs

This week Matt brings us the GOTW.  It’s an interesting twist on musical chairs and provides a fun way to get students up, moving and engaged in the language.  While it sounds like a children’s game, there are a few variations discussed that create some great ways to practice with higher level students and adult groups.  We hope you can use it.
Thanks for listening!

This show Mark and Matt have a few new things on their websites for visitors. Matt has a new Skidamarink Song up on Free ABC Songs and Mark posted a new book to the Fun Fonix website.

This week’s show covers the ‘do’ verbs. We discuss:

• teaching the concept of ‘do’ as action verbs
• teaching ‘do’ without translation and just working with the English concept
• ideas for practicing ‘do’
• teaching negative and question formation
• ideas for practicing these different formations

A couple MES games were referenced and you can find Big Town cards and Little Town cards on MES-English’s games page.
We’d love to hear how you use you teach ‘do’ verbs or ideas for how you practice ‘do’ verbs with your students. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show. You can also just pop-in and introduce yourself. We’d love to know who’s listening.

Thanks for listening!

Game of the Week: Maze Games
This is an activity from Tools for Educators.  There are maze makers that allow you to make a variety of worksheets in a game type format for you students.  There are content squares, places to ask questions or select from thousands of images instead of text and hopefully a limitless format that will provide both fun and education for your students.

Happy teaching!

This show Mark and Matt have a few new things on their websites for visitors.  Matt has put up some new videos to match the Dream English songs.  Some of the videos have ‘live performances and some utelize images.  Please check them out.

Mark has added some worksheet makers to Fun Fonix.com.  You can make quite a few custom worksheets using Fun Fonix images. There are game makers, reading worksheets, spelling worksheets and more!

This week’s show covers the verb ‘be’.  We discuss:

• teaching the concept of ‘be’
• teaching ‘be’ without translation
• ideas for practicing ‘be’
• teaching negative and question formation
• ideas for teaching conjugation

We’d love to hear how you use you teach ‘be’ or ideas for how you practice ‘be’ with your students. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show. You can also just pop-in and introduce yourself. We’d love to know who’s listening.

Thanks for listening!

Game of the Week: the Question Guessing Game

This is an activity for practicing yes/no sentence formation.  It goes well with ‘be’ and this episode, but the Question Guessing Game can be used for any yes/no question form-practice.  There are ideas for downloads you can use from MES-English, but you don’t need to prepare any materials if you don’t want to.

Happy teaching!

This show discusses MES-English.com‘s curriculum for young learners.  It’s the first steps for teaching without a course book or for teachers who are thrown into a teaching situation where there is no set curriculum or textbook.

The curriculum covers core sections:

• content – vocabulary
• target language – phrases, questions, speech acts …
• running content – more lengthy topics
• TPR – vocabulary introduction
• Phonics – phonics, reading, spelling …

Mark covers Units 1-3, explaining what vocabulary he uses for the content section, why he chooses those and how they work to achieve the target language goals for each unit.

The materials for this curriculum are all available for free from MES-English.com.

• flashcards
• worksheets
• phonics resources
• games
• more …

We’d love to hear how you use you MES-English resources or your own curriculum ideas. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show. You can also just pop-in and introduce yourself. We’d love to know who’s listening.

Thanks for listening!

Game of the Week: Dubbing Movies

This is an activity for older students, possibly upper elementary school students, but good for young adults to adults.  It’s good practice for creating dialogs and natural conversation speed. If you have movie fans in your classroom, it should go over even better!

Happy teaching!

Welcome back for Season 3 of ESL Teacher Talk!  If you’re new to ETT, then … just Welcome!

In Season 3 we have a new co-host, Matt of Dream English.com.  With Matt and the other ETT co-hosts, we hope to cover some smaller areas of teaching English.  We will be focusing on teaching specific grammar points, how we teach them, how we explain them, and how we practice them.

We will still have a Game of the Week with each episode as well!

But for the Season 3 premiere, we get to know a little about our new cohost, Matt, and Matt has some really cool things on the web for you.  Matt is the creator of Dream English.com which has songs, flashcards, chants, and supporting teaching materials for teachers to effectively use music in your lessons.

That’s not all, Matt also has a site called Free ABC Songs.com where you can find traditional English songs that you can also use in your lessons or with your own children!

There’s also a section in the podcast that introduces a cool new site, 123 Listening.com.  This is a collaborative effort between Mark’s site, MES-English.com and Dream English.com.  It has free listening tests, test audio and worksheet makers where you can make your own listening tests.
We’d love to hear how you use you music in your classes or any questions you might have about 123 Listening.com, Dream English.com or Free ABC Songs.com. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show.  You can also just pop-in and introduce yourself.  We’d love to know who’s listening.
Thanks for listening!

Game of the Week: Spiders and Candy

This was a game originally developed for 1 and 2 years old.  However, after a few years of using this game, Mark has tried some variations with older students and adults.  It was very successful and Mark explains what to do.  It can be used with small classes of any age but for older students it can be adapted for larger classes.  You can find printables for this game at the games section of MES-English.com.  There’s also a written out explanation of the game there as well.

Happy teaching!

This is the end of Season 2 here at ESL Teacher Talk.  This week we talk about the communicative approach.
We cover:

• what the communicative approach is
• the theory behind the communicative approach and what it’s supposed to do
• the 5 main points of the communicative approach
• how the communicative approach can be used in your lessons
• what are the main benefits, claims, and criticisms of the method

We’d love to hear how you use the communicative approach. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show.

Thanks for listening!  and we’ll be back soon with Season 3!

Game of the Week: Two Stories

This a communicative game from http://bogglesworldesl.com.  Two students are given articles.  The students read the articles themselves.  Then, they retell/summarize the information to their partner.  At the end. there are some follow up questions for each article to measure how well the information was exchanged.

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a methodology made famous by James Ashner.  It’s teaching style based on kinestetic learning.  Teachers speak and students respond in some manner physically.

We cover:

• what TPR is
• the theory behind TPR and what it’s supposed to do
• how TPR can be used in your lessons
• what are the main benefits, claims, and criticisms of the method

We’d love to hear how you use TPR. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show.

Thanks for listening!

For more indepth information on TPR see Learning Another Language Through Actions by James Ashner or check out his website at http://www.tpr-world.com/< Game of the Week: Treasure Island

This a game posted at MES-English. You can use it to practice various tenses, ‘There is …/ There are ..’/ various motion verbs/passive tense and more.  Mark also mentions a variation on working with story telling and sequencing events.  It’s a simple single sheet game and very versatile.  It can be done as a pair activity or as a group activity.  For more information check out the Treasure Island page at MES.  Here is the game board.

This week’s show we welcome John Marks from www.eltgames.com and www.langwichscool.com and we discuss exam preparation courses.

In this show we discuss some ideas on how to organize and exam prep course, what are some key points to include, how to maintain motivation, some ideas for the interview sections and more.

Mark avoids teaching test prep courses like the plague so if you’d just like some great tips on how to encourage students not to seek test prep lessons, this show is also for you .

John writes some ESL cartoons/comic strips which John also makes available for download and use in your lessons. Those can be found at Langwichscool.com

ELTgames.com is another site run by John with materials for different levels with games, group work and tasks for students and another section with communication activities.

If you have any comments or questions, post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show.

Thanks for listening!

Game of the Week: Rotating Interviews

This is an activity that would work well in exam preparation course and for regular lessons as well. This would work best with intermediate to advanced students, but adjustable for students levels. Some students become interviewers and other students are the interviewees. It’s a good activity to get students up and moving.

This week’s show is almost the end of our teaching methodolgies series. Today we offer … Suggestodepia
We cover:

• what suggestopedia is
• how does a suggestopedia lesson run
• the principles of the method
• what are the main benefits, claims, and criticisms of the method

We’d definitely like to hear what you think about the method. Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show.

Thanks for listening!

Game of the Week: Guess the Question
A simple warm-up activity reviewing question formation for older children through to adults. You simply need a piece of paper, some students, and you the teacher just need to prepare some structure. It’s a good activity for pair work or group work.

This week’s show is on using board games off the shelf.   Ron and Mark offer some suggestions for  how you can use board games in ESL classes and as communicative activities.

We cover:

• games that are ready to go right of the shelf, like Scrabble, Pictionary, …
• games you need to tweak a little, like UNO, Jenga, …
• games you can use with a bit of imagination, like Monopoly, …

There are about 10+ game ideas you can use in your language classes.

If you have some ideas for using board games, let us know.  We’d definitely like to hear  about a few more ideas.  Post them here or over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Ask questions or leave comments about the show.

Thanks for listening!
Game of the Week: Simon Sheep

A fun group game to get students up and moving.  It’s great for practicing body parts, numbers, and it can be used to quickly get large classes into groups.  A quick fun game!

some downloadable games mentioned in the show: English Tycoon and UnScramble It!

This week Chris Cotter from Heads Up English.com is with us again. Heads Up English.com has some new lower intermediate exercises: speaking activities, listening activities, grammar worksheets and vocabulary exercises free for download! Please check out Heads Up English.com!

Mark starts the conversation off and offers quite a few ideas about what makes for good speaking activities:

• less about the language and more about the language goal
• lower levels – very repetitive
• higher levels – the language is functional and real
• make sure the activity is student centered
• …

and Mark goes on with more tips for creating a successful speaking activity.

Chris adds to Mark’s list with some other tips:

• high talk time
• expanding on the activities
• variability in the activity structure
• decide whether the activity is for fluency, accuracy, or one then the other.
• …

Ron batting number 3 in the discussion added his tips:

• creating student interest in the activity
• tips to decrease student anxiety
• don’t overextend a short activity – killing it and your audience

Part 2 goes into how to actually accomplish some of these ideas to make speaking activities and language practice more effective. We give some examples of what we think are good examples of these ideas, some examples of what we think aren’t good examples and how those can easily be changed to more effective speaking task.

Ideas for beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.

Some of the games and ideas discussed in the show can be found in previous games of the week or in the following links: the Paper Game MES Games Get Four

Discuss this podcast and what you think makes for a great speaking activity on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums! We’re listening.

We have a big show this week, so we get right into it.

Mark and Ron cover these points concerning the Silent Way methodology:

• what is the Silent Way Method
• key aspects of the Silent Method
• how does the Silent Method work in class
• using cuisenaire rods, colored blocks and instilling learner autonomy
• criticism of the Silent Method and what we can do with it in class

The Silent Way is a very intriguing method and if you have any questions or anything to add about the silent method post your comments or questions over on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums.  We’re listening!

Game of the Week: the Paper Game

This is a pretty big game of the week.  It is Mark’s favorite game and the seed that started several games at MES-English which in turn started MES-English.  It’s the game that started it all!

It’s a communcative game that has students assume personalities.  The students interact and try to guess who the other student is.  It can be played with groups of 4 to 400.  It’s adaptable to all levels and goes over well with children and adults.  You can use the template to create your own board and there are game board makers that allow you to make boards using the same images from the MES-English flashcards.  Enjoy!

Clive of ESL Podcards is with us again this week. He’s been working his site and enrolled in a new course. He’s learning about Content and Language Intergrated Learning (CLIL.) In the beginning Clive gives us a quick run down of what CLIL is.

Clive and Mark take a look at their experiences team teaching. Some of their experiences have been positive and some haven’t been so positive. However, these experiences are all with other languages teachers. This is where CLIL differs.

CLIL uses one language teacher and one subject teacher. The subject teacher is the content pro and the language teacher is the language/linguistic pro. Together they work to teach content and improve language skills. The goal of the lesson isn’t a linguist goal, but a content goal.

Other parts covered include:

• positive and negative aspects
• using multiple intelligences

Discuss CLIL or ask questions over on the ESL Teacher Talk forums. We’d be glad to keep the show going!

Check out Clive’s site ESLpodcards for listening resources for teachers with accompanying worksheets and transcripts.

Game of the week: Bounce Around

This is a simple board game that can be used for practice or for review. The game can be adapted to any level or any linguistic target. It can be used with elementary school students to adults, large classes, small classes and it’s great for one-on-one. All you need is a board, markers for the students and a die.

You can make a board with all text, mixed text and images or all images. That board maker is available at Tools for Educators.com. If you have more questions or would like to see everything written out, as well as read some of the variations, you can check MES-English for the Bounce Around game write-up.

Thanks for listening!

THe show starts off with a brief look at the possible hazards associated with teaching ESL. Mark has a pretty interesting story from work this week.
This podcast we’re glad to welcome Patrick Bickford, from Englipedia. Patrick tells us a little about where he’s teaching, what he’s doing and about the website he’s been working on for the past year.

“Englipedia is about people contributing a little of their own ideas, and in turn gaining a valuable resource by which we all can benefit. It is dedicated to Assistant Language Teachers, Japanese Teachers of English and Homeroom teachers working within Japan’s … public education sector.”

Patrick tells us a bit about Englipedia, what the site contains and how teachers can use and adapt some of the resources. Please check out the site. http://jhsenglipediaproject.com

You can discuss this show as well as older shows on the ESL Teacher Talk Forums. We’d love to hear from you.

Game of the Week : Mario and Luigi

Patrick brings with him the Game of the Week this week. It’s a whole class activity aimed at elementary school children. It could also be used with kindergarten classes and small groups as well. It’s a fun review/practice game and gets a little of that video game energy into the classroom. We hope you enjoy the activity!

The new school year has started in Taiwan and Ron is back to work.

Easter and St. Patrick’s Day are upon us this month and Mark has some new materials for these holidays if you’re interested.

Easter – flashcards, coloring, stickers, sticker charts, printable greeting cards, certificates, Easter bingo cards, an Easter board game and more!

St. Patrick’s Day – flashcards, coloring, stickers, sticker charts, printable greeting cards, certificates, bingo cards, a shamrock board game and more!

Have fun!

This week’s show is about using projectors in your classes.  The projector is a great tool for engaging the students and adding tchnology to your classes.  Ron’s school just added new projectors to the classroom and he’s all hyped up about them.

Ron and Mark offer ideas for what you can do with projectors, explain why it’s useful, how to use them in children’s, teen and adult classes .  There is also a warning section about problems and possible pitfalls with projectors in the classroom.

If you are using a projector already, hopefully this will give you a couple ideas to add to your lessons.  If you aren’t using a projector currently, maybe this will help when the day comes.

Discuss this show over on the ESL Teacher Talk forums.  Ask questions or leave comments about how you use a projector in your classes.

Thanks for listening!

The Game of the Week: Speed Dice and the Sentence Race

Mark has been enraptured with dice games for the past year or so and brings 2 games this week.  These are simple to prepare and can be used with children to adults, one-on-one classes to the dreaded 80+ classes as well.  We hope you can use the activity.

More dice games and a write up of these games.

Mark has a lot of news. Things are moving and shaking at MES-English with a new website that will bring a lot of flexibility to MES-English users and provide materials for teachers that may not have been MES-E users in the past. Tools for Educators.com!

Mark has been working for a month or so on the new site and it offers teachers a few worksheet makers, a handout generator, dice makers, domino wizard, spelling and reading quizzes, a board game creator, a tracing and free writing worksheet generator and more. Please check it out!

Continuing with teaching methodologies, this week’s show is the third in the series, the Audio-Lingual Method. Mark and Ron will run down for you what the Audio^Lingual method is and the principles behind it and how it is/was used. We also discuss what we can take away from the method, plus a few thoughts on what we should leave behind.

Discuss this show at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Leave comments about this show, words of encouragement, suggestions for future shows, or just pop-in and tell us who you are.

Thanks for listening!

The Game of the Week: Crisscross Bingo

Crisscross Bingo is a fresh version of the old classic. Students combine words or phrases in a speaking task that can be adjusted to the students’ level. They plot points on their board much like Battleship and place a mark on their board. When they get 3 in a row or 4 in a row, bingo!

This game was designed to be played using dice which you can make here. You can also create the boards very quickly from Tools for Educators.com. But you don’t need to do that. This game is easily adapted to larger classes, it can be played with flashcards instead of dice and it can be played with any ordinary pair of dice and a sheet of paper.
We hope your students (and you) enjoy the game!

This week’s show deals with creating a lesson plan.

• requirements for a lesson plan
• why you should have a lesson plan
• what goes into a lesson plan
• the lesson plan as a record for other teachers
• tips for adding to your plan while it’s in action
• sample lesson plans from Mark and Ron
• ending the lesson

Sorry, a short and sweet write-up of the show.

Game of the week: King Me

A fun game for large classes, small groups, children or adults. A game for everyone. You’ll need a set of flashcards, but you’ll need to get on the photocopier and make a few different versions of the cards. You’ll need some space, but it’s a fun game.

This is a variation of a game submitted to the MES-English forums http://www.mes-english.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1684#5282

I hope you enjoy it!

Happy New Year!  We’re back and we hope everyone has had a great holiday.  Ron’s in Tailand and Mark is freezing in Nagano.  The idea of enjoying winter and getting out in the snow came up, but …
This show deals with putting together an ESL event, show, or presentation for your school or the parents.  It can seem like a lot to ask, because you are often give little or no direction.

We go over some options for content, what to do, what you might not want to do, options for content and some of the things Ron and Mark have done.  We offer ideas for elementary school, junior high
Putting on shows is actually fun.  Trust me.  It’s actually great once it’s over so if you get a performance dumped in your lap, we hope you embrace the opportunity to put on a Christmas Pirate Adventure!

Mark actually disagrees with putting on shows, presentations and events.  That part didn’t quite make it into the show,but if you’re wanting to know why, hop over to the ESL Teacher Talk forums at MES-English.com and ask what that’s all about.

Game of the Week: Guess Who

Ron has brought a game for any level, but best for 10 and up.  There’s little preparation necessary; a set of questions and a sheet of paper for everyone.   There’s some writing involved and several different variations to spice up the game.  Good for large groups, but can be adapted to smaller groups.  Enjoy!

Merry Christmas! This will be the last podcast of 2007 and we wanted to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Mark has a lot of news this show.

Hospital English.com has been updated!  I’m sure everyone was waiting for this and it has come.  There are a bunch of new materials on there for teachers.  So, if you teach medical professionals check it out!  Or if you just want to increase traffic to that site by 20%, please visit the site!
There are a lot of new Christmas resources at MES-English.com and in the MES Network.

• Christmas worksheets and flashcards
• Christmas stickers
• Christmas award certificates
• Christmas sticker charts
• Christmas coloring and other holiday coloring sheets
• Christian coloring pages

Dream English.com has written a version of Jingle Bells that’s free to download and use in you classes.  The song has a vocabulary practice section that matches the vocabulary in the MES-English Christmas flashcards.  Use them together had spice up you Christmas lessons.

The actual show this week is on organization.  We give you some tips on how to organize flashcards, students’ homework, textbooks, CDs, worksheets, the paper tiger, your classroom, lesson plans, and more.

If you spend a little time using these organizational tips, you can save yourself a lot more time at work.

Game of the Week: A Day at School

A board game that allows you to practice a great variety of different target languages.  Check out the game and download the game board and cards here A Day at School

You can alter the game and make it into an ESL RPG game with elves and dwarves fighting each other in the hallway, take points, earn special armor …

In a quick intro to the show, we find out Mark is ecstatically jubilant this week. Things are fabulously wonderful in Japan. Find out why.

Continuing with teaching methods, this week’s show is about the Direct Method. Mark and Ron will run down for you what the direct method is, how it was used and why.

We may give the Direct Method a bit of a hard time in the beginning, but all methods have merit and many things you can use and things you probably already use come from the Direct Method. There are a lot of great things you get from it. Mark and Ron put forth a few ideas of what parts of the method you can use in your classes tomorrow. I’m going to say ‘use’ one more time. Basically, things you can use.

Discuss this show at the ESL Teacher Talk forums. Leave comments about this show, words of encouragement, suggestions for future shows, or just pop-in and tell us who you are.

Game of the Week: Story Differences

It works just like find the difference pictures. Students have two versions of one story and they need to find the differences by discussing their stories. It’s a great speaking and negotiating activity. Students need to practice verifying information or expressing differences of opinion. Enjoy!

This might be the last podcast that opens with a Halloween discussion. It was recorded back at the beginning of Oct. If you’d like to see the outcome of all of this Halloween talk, here’s the pictures and run down of Mark’s 2007 Halloween party www.marks-english-school.com/news/2007halloween/
Kenny has left the building and someone has to teach his children’s class that starts in 10 minutes. Mark has asked Clive to cover the lesson and Clive is in a panic. Luckily, Clive has 10 minutes to get some advice and Mark offers a few ideas for what you can do in this situation; assessing levels, activities with no materials, describing items, phonics, singing and more. There’s enough information to teach 4-5 hours without a lesson plan!
More info on the exercise game: www.mes-english.com/games/gamestoplay.php

Kenny has done it again and is looking to get fired. This time he’s gone home with the sniffles and Clive needs someone to cover an adult class that starts in … you guessed it! 10 minutes. Well, Mark has agreed to do it, but is concerned that’s there’s no lesson plan and he doesn’t want to look like an idiot. So, Clive gives Mark a few ideas for things he can do for assessing the class’s level to activities that can be done on the fly; soap operas, quiz games, current events, writing prompts, and a few other ideas.
If you have some ideas for things teachers can do in this situation, please share. Visit the ESL Teacher Talk forums and post your ideas or comments!

Game of the Week: GOTW challenge

You have 10 minutes and the clock is ticking… Put you ideas here.

This show we’re starting a small series on methodologies in ESL/EFL. Through the years there have been quite a few different takes on teaching languages. We’ll look at each one and give our ideas on what’s good and bad.

This first segment, we’ll take a look at Grammar Translation.

Discuss this show, other shows, and grammar translations over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums!

Game of the Week: Ognib

Play a game of Bingo or almost Bingo but use only one board. It’s an excellent game. For more bingo options check out these options www.mes-english.com/flashcards/bingo.php

This show we welcome Richard Graham from GenkiEnglish.com. Richard runs www.genkienglish.com and provides music, games and downloads for teachers. He tells us a bit about how he got started with music, what was behind the creation of his songs, and what new things are available over at GenkiEnglish.com.

Also, in case you were wondering, we do explain what ‘genki’ means

Richard also goes over some good ideas for how to teach songs, new words, sentences and delivery. He offers some suggestions for how to keep the excitement up throughout the lesson.

The second segment deals with how to get the students singing. Even if you can’t sing like an angel, there’s hope. Find out what you can do.

Visit GenkiEnglish.com: This site is a collection of games, songs and ideas for use by teachers of languages to children. 40+ themed lesson ideas complete with printable picture cards, online teaching guide video, recommended game and original song. Fully illustrated games to get the kids speaking in class.

You can also check out what’s going on with Richard Graham in his blog: Richard’s Diary

Discuss this show over at the eslTeacherTalk Forums! We’re listening.
Games of the Week: Mingle and Gorilla

Mingle is a great game for practicing questions related to numbers as answers. It is also a great way to get kids into groups.

Gorilla is a great game to get students moving and interested while you’re drilling flashcards. It’s a simple game and very effective for keeping the children engaged in the lesson.

It’s wet and wild in Japan. A Typhoon has landed and after the podcast Mark actually had to head out to do some volunteer fire fighter work.  Saving the day!

This week we’re back with part 2 of phonics order.  Mark and Ron finish off phonics and what order they teach things.  As well a that, they touch on some ideas for advanced phonics teaching and advanced learners.

Toward the end we touch on phonics for all ages and by the end of of a double header, we hope we have given you a few things to think about.  If you are setting out your phonics curriculum, maybe we’ve offered some direction.  if you already have your system set up, well … maybe you’ll get something from the show.

Discuss phonics and this show over at the ESL Teacher Talk forums.  (to register use this VIP code: 7575)

Game of the Week: Phonics Toss

This is a pretty easy game and designed for younger learners, but adults like to have fun as well.  All you need is your phonics flashcards (make your own if you need to) and a few balls (wads of paper will work.) It’s easy and people love it.  Happy teaching!

It’s tough to cover all of phonics, but Mark and Ron give it a shot. The show takes a look first at spelling through the ages and why English spelling is the monster it is.  There are a lot of things that have happened within English spelling over the past 1000 years.  Mark goes through a few of the things that have had a big impact on English spelling.

Hopefully the lecture doesn’t lose you and you continue listening for part one of teaching order. While order is a widely debated, we will go ahead and give you our take on it and why.

We’ll be back with part two of teaching order in the next show.

Discuss the show at the ESL Teacher Talk forums  (register with this VIP code: 7575)

Game of the Week: Word Baseball

Ron gives us a great game this week, Word Baseball. You can use it in your phonics lesson or it can be adapted to other lessons.  It requires little to no preparation and can be used on the fly if you need more practice or need to fill some extra time.

Just when you thought the stores were putting out their Halloween stuff a little too early, Mark explains to you the market they’re after. Luckily, Halloween isn’t the topic of this September show. Don’t let the beginning make you think other wise.

Mark and Clive both run their own school and one of the more difficult problems with running your own school is getting classes together. Not only getting bodies in the door but also making sure those students are in good groupings with similar level and goal oriented students.

It’s a full house with Ron, Clive and Mark all chiming in on how they select textbooks, assess students’ levels, and how they deal with different age groups.

Mark’s carvings can be found about half way down this page.

Discuss the show and or pumpkin carving over at the ESL Teacher Talk Forum. (To register use this VIP code 7575.)

Check out Clive’s site ESLpodcards for listening resources for teachers with accompanying worksheets and transcripts.

Game of the Week: Fizz Buzz

Clive has brought the game of the week and it’s an adapted version of a British drinking game. While you technically could play it as a drinking game, we don’t recommend it Instead, you can use the game to review vocabulary such as irregular verbs.

Mark, Clive and Ron give the game a go! Listen to the show to see who the winner are.

Teaching advanced learners can often feel like tuning up a Ferrari. What do you do? How do you make those students run better? This week’s show brings back Chris Cotter from www.headsupenglish.com. Mark, Ron and Chris cover how to break bad habits, build vocabulary, use dictionaries, set goals, and keep students motivated.

Discuss the show over at the ESL Teacher Talk Forum. (To register use this VIP code 7575.)

Visit www.headsupenglish.com to find complete lesson plans and materials for upper-intermediate and advanced EFL/ESL learners. The materials are based on current events in the news – what we and our students are talking about.

Game of the Week: Conversation Excitifier

This week’s GOTW is a great way to excitify dialog practice. You don’t need any extra materials, just your dialog and your students! The activity can be adapted to discussions on different topics or themes for more advanced learners.

I must say, this week’s GOTW is excitifying!

Using news articles in classes provides interesting and useful content, but how should we go about it? This show Chris Cotter from www.headsupenglish.com visits with us. HeadsUpEnglish.com offers ESL lesson plans based around current news articles with matching activities and worksheets for ESL teachers and audio for students. In our first segment, Resource Talk, Chris explains a little about himself and his website www.headsupenglish.com.

The second segment, Pro Talk, Mark, Ron, and Chris discuss how to create your own lesson plan based around news articles and how they execute lessons based around news articles, covering reading strategies, warm-up activities, vocabulary introduction, and follow-up exercises.

To get your hands on free ready-to-go news articles lessons and free matching audio downloads visit www.headsupenglish.com

For more discussion on this topic and other ESL Teacher Talk podcast discussions visit the ESL Teacher Talk Forum.

One other good site with news articles and accompanying activities is www.breakingnewsenglish.com.

Game of the Week: Steal the Conversation

This week’s guest Chris Cotter brings the game of the week. It’s a simple fluency activity designed to encourage speaking and taking control of the conversation. Preparation is simple and there’s a bonus activity included called “Anti-Steal the Conversation,” but listen to the show and see if you can come up with a better name.

Mark and Ron pick up from the show two episodes ago and deal with new classes, new students and new teachers. This show covers adult classes and young adult learners. we go over some ideas for a teacher’s first class, an entirely new class, a single new student and private classes. There are tips, advice and a few things to just to be aware of. Enjoy the show!

Visit the ESL Teacher Talk Forums and join in on the show! If you aren’t a forum member, use this VIP code: 7575 to register.

Game of the Week: Tic, Tac, Know
A quick game that’s easy to set up. You need 9-16 flashcards and a few students. It’s flexible and gets the students moving. It is designed for young learners but I’m sure adults as well can enjoy the game and learning. Happy teaching!

A new co-host, Clive, squares off with Mark about which is better teaching children or teaching adults. Mark prefers teaching children and has some suggestions for Clive’s problems in children’s classes. Then Clive, who prefers teaching adults, offers Mark some suggestions for Mark’s problems with adult classes.

Clive will be apearing on the show from time to time and we’re very glad to have him. In the first segment of the show we learn about Clive and what he’s doing in Italy. He runs www.eslpodcards.com and if you haven’t been by there yet, stop by and take a look around. Clive explains how to use the articles, listening and worksheets you can find in the Pocard lessons.

Game of the Week: True or False

This is a game that requires little to no preparation. It practices question formation as well as reasoning and being convincing in English. The game is described as practice for past simple but can be easily adapted to suit the present, present perfect, future and more. It’s up to your imagination. Have fun!

Part one – Children’s classes: There’s a lot to think about when dealing with a new class. Ron and Mark offer you some advice and give you a few things to think about when the class is new, you the teacher are new or a new student is introduced into the class.

Game of the Week: the Yes No race

A nice warm-up activity and can be used to practice any yes-no question.

game to print www.eslteachertalk.com/games/yesnoraceprint.php
game with questions www.eslteachertalk.com/games/yes_no_questions.doc

This first segment brings you a short interview with the new co-host Ron Molenda. We learn a little bit about Ron and what all this Season 2 nonsense is about. In the Just Talk section of the show, Ron tells us about living and working in Taiwan. You can get a feel for what to expect, good ways to find a job and what to be weary of when looking to work in Taiwan.

Game of the Week: Curiosity

An almost zero preparation game that practices question formation and continuing a conversation. This game is good for intermediate to advanced intermediate levels. It’s best with small groups but is explained in the show how it could be adapted for larger classes.

There are quite a few ideas floating around and when I get a better feel for what you can expect, I’ll post a Season Two teaser.

New shows should be rolling out by late June.

Thanks for listening,

Mark

There have been 30 shows over the past year, and this week’s show is the season finale. Mark and Eric go over why they created eslTeacherTalk. What they hope they have done to help other teachers and the future of this show.

Sorry, no game of the week this week.

They’re everywhere and about everything, why not start your own. You have a lot of experiences and advice to pass on! Blog today! This week, Mark and Eric discuss the benefits of creating an ESL blog, how to get started and what you need to know.

Get a free blog here: www.blogger.com

Domain owners, get a template here: wordpress.org

Game of the Week: Down Pass

This is a relatively easy to prepare game that you can use to practice compound words or spelling. It is designed for larger classes but can be easily adapted to small groups. Have fun!

This is a relatively easy to prepare game that you can use to practice compound words or spelling. It is designed for larger classes, but can be easily adapted to small groups. Have fun!

Devon Thagard, co-creator of SuperSimpleSongs, comes to the studio this week. He discusses his ESL experience and how he uses songs in class with young children. There are also some recommendations for music for young learners and a way to get a free set of SuperSimpleSong CDs.

Learn more: www.supersimplesongs.com

Visit devon’s blog at http://simplesongs.blogs.com

listen to some i-mixes of simple songs:

U.S. iTunes

iTunes Japan

Devon’s podcast: www.kodomoeikaiwa.podomatic.com

Game of the Week: RPS challenge

In 5 minutes practice any target language with students aged 5-100. All you need are some markers and students. It’s a great warm-up activity or review activity.

In 5 minutes practice any target language with students aged 5-100. All you need are some markers and students. It’s a great warm-up activity or review activity.

This week we have Patrick Jackson, author of the Potato Pals series published through Oxford Press. He talks about his experiences getting the books to print, what potato pals are, why he created them and how he uses them in class.

You can read more about Patrick Jackson and the Potato Pals at http://potatopals.blogspot.com.  Visit the site and learn how you could win a free set of Potato Pals books.