English Teaching Tips and Games

ESL Grammar Reference Book

2012-01-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

Hello there,

I am asked regularly about a good grammar reference book and the one I have been using for years is Michael Swan's Practical English Usage. Here is a link to it below on Amazon.

If you cannot afford the book below in a million years then there are dictionary sites on line that are free and that can give some guidance. I frequently use dictionary.com, it has advertising that you have to scroll past and ignore, but it's free and easy to use. That will at least give you parts of speech and examples, though it's not a complete grammar guide.

English play for children on You Tube

2012-01-04T03:51:00.000-08:00

Using English skits and role-plays it really is easy to make your ESL teaching effective and fun.
Don't take my word for it but check out this video from Irina in Russia, using one of my skits with her pupils.

Just see the enthusiasm in the children learning English. They are motivated, well-behaved, becoming more fluent in English and having fun. It's so easy to do it when you know how:

Watch it now because I don't know how long the video will be up (it's not mine)!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksrKhX46i9s&context=C30f19feADOEgsToPDskI49jvqg-EWYfMsqecr3I42

P.S. I made a comment at the You Tube page that "Oh my God" is strong language and we should avoid using that phrase as it can insulting to Christians. Therefore it's best to use phrases like "oh my goodness, oh no, oh dear" to set a good example to our prodigies and avoid causing offence.

English plays and skits on Kindle

2011-12-26T07:42:00.000-08:00

Hi there,
These plays and skits for young children learning English are now available on Kindle for MUCH cheaper than on my website. You can't print them out because it's a Kindle book, but it's a cheap way to get the English plays and do fun roleplays with your groups.

ESL posters

2011-08-28T03:37:00.000-07:00

Hello there dear readers,

A teacher just asked me where to buy ESL posters for vocabulary in the primary classroom. Save your money! It's much more fun and effective to make your own ESL poster with the children as the term or year progresses.

Children may draw the required vocabulary items or search them out in magazines, cut them out and stick onto your posters - no paper? Use the sides of old cardboard boxes! I'm anti always buying things, especially plastic when it's more creative to recycle. Buying a poster and sticking it on the wall is PASSIVE, while making one as a collective task is interactive, engaging and as a consequence kids (or adults) will remember words better.

More ideas for ESL posters:

1. Have one for each letter of the alphabet, perhaps combining the letters X, Y and Z as vocabulary words are rarer for those. As new vocabulary comes up in class children seek out or draw the items and add them to the relevant sheet

2. Use the vocabulary posters in games - plenty of my primary ESL games describe how to make use of ESL posters in any kind of classroom setting from small groups to large classes.

3. Adding a picture to a vocabulary poster could be a reward for good behaviour or work.

4. Who said posters have to be square or rectangular? Make them in the shape of the letter, giant size and stick the words all around the letters but not in the holes.

If you have other ideas for do it yourself ESL posters your comments are extremely welcome and appreciated. I'll publish pictures of good ones if you would like that.

All the best
Shelley

Teaching English through Poetry

2011-06-26T06:09:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers,

Here is a poem by Abdul Hafeez, from his book of Urdu poetry, published in Pakistan.

For such a short poem so many questions arise and could be discussed in small groups. Thank you Abdul for this concise, elegant and thoughtful poem and for allowing it to appear on this blog.

One sees the man at the gallows giving up his life to remain integrous. Who would really do that today? It happened often in Europe during the religious wars. What historic events do your students know of when this happened?

How truthful are people today? Many of our politicians lie to us routinely, but what about you, how truthful are you?

Then the quiet admission of great pain, but kept private. This is not Hello magazine my dears where people spread their innards out over glossy pages. This personal poem has dignity.

I hope you enjoy this poem as much as I do and share it with your students to help increase their appreciation of literature, while improving their English discussion skills.

If I were Looking glass
By Abdul Hafeez

Never ever in my life,
Would I lie for expediency
Even before the king, even at the gallows,
Only and only truth I’d speak,
If I were Looking glass,

But for being human,
I’m born to be shattered ceaselessly, dear.

Sometimes by shock,
Sometimes by fatal pangs of separation,

If I were Looking glass,

Surely I'd be crashed into tiny pieces by
ruthless stone.
But only once it happened – just once in my
life.

If I were Looking glass.

English only ESL when you don't speak the local language

2011-04-03T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

Not being able to speak the local language can be a blessing in disguise for an ESL teacher because you are forced to use English all the time in class.

On arriving at my local school in Nepal I found that even some of the English teachers had trouble understanding me, never mind the pupils! This was because of their own low level of English and also the fact that my English accent was unfamiliar to them, so used to a "Nepali-English" accent were they. Therefore chatting away to your class is not an option in this type of situation. You will most likely alienate and discourage your pupils if you hit them with a wall of incomprehensible talking.

So if you cannot speak the local lingo, how do explain things to the children, such as a grammatical concept or how to play an English language game?

The answer I found was to limit what I said to single commands and short sentences, which I repeated often combined with gestures and demonstrations. The children soon understood what to do or what was being communicated.

For example a simple and fun game is one I call Hot Potato. Here children pass objects around the class while repeating a set phrase or v. short dialogue for speaking practice. Suddenly the teacher says "stop!" and those holding the objects have to do a forfeit, answer a question or name some vocabulary.

In order to explain this game to the children there was no possibility of using words, which would not be understood. In addition the children were so used to sitting repeating things that any kind of active participation in the class was totally alien to them.

To explain the game I took a pencil case and put it in a child's hand. I took his arm and pulled it towards another student, repeating "pass" over and over. Simultaneously I took the other student's arm and pulled it towards the pencil case, until the child took the pencil case. I then repeated that process again with the next child in line so the children physically saw the pencil case being passed along, and they understood.

Next I took the pencil case back to the start point and used the language I needed practising during the passing process. The children understood right away what they were supposed to do because I had SHOWN them, with no English instructions at all.

Next on my command "pass!" they started passing and repeating of the language, which by the way, for the first time I played this game I kept to a single word. Then I said "stop!" and clapped my hands. The children automatically stopped passing because they had understood that I wanted their attention.

I made the one with the pencil case stand up and do a forfeit. THEN they understood the whole game. At that point I was able to add in several pencil cases right away so that more pupils were involved in passing and repeating the given word or phrase.

For forfeits I made them up on the cuff and one that they particularly loved was to come to the front and do five press ups. As I had about 15 children I had three pencil cases and three of them doing forfeits at the same time to keep things moving. How did I get them to do the press ups? Well I had to demonstrate of course! They were so impressed that a woman could do press ups, obviously this is not done often in a Nepali English lesson!

Other forfeit ideas I used were naming a vocabulary item, miming a profession, pretending to be a chicken and demonstrating a Nepali dance.

It was absolutely great fun and it was all done by demonstrating and by introducing the game in stages, through showing it, rather than trying to explain it.

Other more complicated games can be attempted once you have a rapport with the class and have taught some basic commands. The key is demonstrate and do it in stages.

Have fun!
Shelley
See primary games book or preschool games book for more great ESL game ideas:
Primary games
Preschool games

English Teaching Tips and Games: ESL volunteer with no facilities!

2011-03-29T03:41:00.000-07:00

English Teaching Tips and Games: ESL volunteer with no facilities!: "Hello there teachers, Volunteering is an increasingly popular thing to do as people think more about contributing to the world rather than ..."

ESL volunteer with no facilities!

2011-03-29T02:43:00.000-07:00

Hello there teachers,

Volunteering is an increasingly popular thing to do as people think more about contributing to the world rather than just taking from it. As we grow from a child to an adult we come to realise that there is more pleasure in giving than in receiving. Having returned from ESL volunteering in a government school in Nepal, I can report, not surprisingly, that it was truly enjoyable and satisfying. All teachers, whether volunteering or paid, have this opportunity to give on a daily basis through their work.

I'll post comments over the next few days exposing some of the ESL teaching challenges that I faced and how I responded to them.

In the meantime, to set the scene, imagine a school with no electricity, no glass in the classroom windows, dark walls and ceilings, no heating and plenty of dust! One day it poured with rain so several pupils and some teachers used that as an excuse not to come to school. Children with no teachers were left in their classroom all day, in the dark, freezing cold, in just thin uniforms with no coats!

The ESL teaching technique in the school for the younger children was based on repeating the same words or phrases over and over again after the teacher. The children have no opportunity to think for themselves, simply sitting at their desks, repeating the same sentence for 35 minutes at high volume. It would be comic if it wasn't tragic!

When I took a class of seven year olds they could hardly believe it as they learned through games. Their faces were lit up with smiles, they were so keen they kept standing up to have a turn and forgetting to sit down again. They responded so well we were able to put on "Ready Steady Go" (short ESL play for beginners) in a single session. Bear in mind that I speak no Nepalese so games and meanings had to be explained through demonstration only, and this worked perfectly.

Another class I took of mixed 4 to 6 year olds was a similar experience and it was a sheer joy to be teaching them. I wished that I could have done more and I vow to create the time to do so. Their enthusiastic faces and keen desire to learn are printed on my mind as an indelible picture that literally warms my heart.

Speak soon
Shelley

ESL Blog Directory

2010-08-27T02:28:00.000-07:00

Hello teachers,

Today I found a directory of ESF blogs that could be a useful resource for you.

The EFL ESL Blog List

Kind regards
Shelley

New Year's Teaching Resolutions for 2010

2009-12-28T05:37:00.000-08:00

Dear [[firstname]],

I hope you had a wonderful family time if you were celebrating
the birth of Christ - of course not everyone celebrates that, but
we can all benefit from thoughts of love and sharing in our lives.

For 2010 many of us make resolutions. Let me share mine with you,
and imagine if these were applied to your teaching, how they could
make you even more fulfilled with your career, and what you could
give to your pupils in the way of support to go forth into the world.

This intention is from Dr. David Hawkins, who has written several books on the path to enlightenment:

"To be kind to all people and things, all of the time, no matter what".

"To be kind to all people and things, all of the time, no matter what".

And also:
"To remember to be grateful for the good things in my life no matter
what obstacles come my way."

I hope the above two resolutions will make the world a better place!
I hope you also make resolutions that empower you and I really wish
you all the best, and the strength to carry them out.

Happy New Year!

Shelley Vernon

http://teachingenglishgames.com

A successful example of using ESL role-plays to teach children English

2009-11-27T05:14:00.000-08:00

Dear Teachers,

Here is an ESL role-play idea from an imaginative and motivated teacher in France called Erie. The role-play is idea is simple and basic, but what is useful about the idea is how Erie handled the set up of this task so that his class of twenty children could:
1. manage it well from an ESL language point of view
2. manage it from a classroom management point of view

As those of you who follow my blog will know, I absolutely love role-play as a means of teaching English. It is something children enjoy doing naturally, for them it is fun, and it allows for optimum speaking practise for the whole class.

I have 26 plays and skits for use with primary children in small groups, and on my plays page you'll find a free one, along with some nice pictures of the skits in action in schools.

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/eslplays.htm

So thanks Erie for sharing this great role-play idea with us today!

Yesterday, we talked about Thanksgiving and what the Pilgrims had on their dinner
table. To learn the children food-vocabulary we did a Restaurant play. With menus on
the table for the clients, the servers (one for each table of 4 clients) had the
same items on his ticket (with room behind each item to write down the name of the
client who ordered it), and a cook who had all the flashcards with the items on a
table. The instructions were for the server : "Hello, can I take your order please",
for the clients " Yes, I would like ... and .... and ...." (but all the plates on
the same table had to be different). Once the server had the orders of his 4
clients, he had to go to the cook, and say (in English) what he needed for his
clients. He served each client the plates ordered and got paid. (5$ per person, and
the (printed) dollar bills were distributed along with the menus).
I let the most turbulent children play the role of servers, and those who have
difficulty in learning vocabulary the role of cook, it was amazing ! The servers did
a very good job, felt responsible et played the game as they should, and the "cook"
knew all the items at the end of the game. The children really loved the game.
For my older students - CM1/CM2 - I'll be doing the same game, but with more food
and drink-items and a price (1 dollar) per item.

Teach Your Child English Not Your Parrot

2009-11-20T03:29:00.000-08:00

Dear Fellow Teachers

I have just written an article for parents and private tutors here:

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/Articles/Teach_Your_Child.htm

It's about how to teach a child English one to one in a fun and safe way. You want your child to love learning and blossom like a flower through your effective and fun teaching strategy.

Learn more right away with the article, and no, your child is not a parrot!

Shelley

Technology in the ESL Classroom and 21st Century skills

2009-11-09T03:41:00.000-08:00

Dear Reader

If you are interested in staying up to date, dragging yourself into the twenty first century and avoiding becoming fossilised to your black board while you peer out at your students through a haze of chalk dusk that has settled on your glasses then I seriously recommend that you read my article on using technology in the ESL classroom and 21st century skills.

Now let me just say that firstly the article DOES specify what 21st century skills are. Secondly the important thing to realise is that all these skills can be applied and used from your yak tent on the Tibetan plateau, or your hill tribe village without so much as a plug for your laptop. In fact even if you are in a shanty town in Brazil where they have not been able to pirate electricity from the telegraph poles, you CAN still use these ideas - everybody can with some energy and imagination - be creative - life is a lot more fun!!

http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/Articles/Technology_ESL_Classroom.htm

I hope it inpires you as it did me.

All the best
Shelley

PS Fossilised with an s is British spelling.

Request for role-plays and dialogues

2009-11-06T01:31:00.000-08:00

Hello readers,

Today I received a request for role-plays and dialogues from a teacher who, like all teachers, does not have much time to prepare for classes.

My primary games book does not have this kind of activity.
It is for teaching and practising vocab and grammar and does not go far towards speaking fluency.

The teen/adult book however has plenty of that type of activity.
For example Talk About It. This requires no preparation and may be used with any topic. Plus you don't need to buy a set of books for every child, or make tons of photocopies.

Set up chairs in rows facing each other so with ten students you would have five on each side. You sit at the end of the row as timekeeper. The people on your right are talkers and have to talk about a topic for 1 minute without stopping. The people on the left are listeners and do not talk at all except to encourage the talkers and provide a word if they get stuck.

You can allow any kind of topic, serious or funny. You can hand out topics for students to talk about, have all students talking about a different topic, all about the same one, or let students choose their own topics. If you let students talk about topics of their choice they may have more to say on them, however forcing a student to talk about a topic you select can stretch their imagination and vocabulary. In general I would say that it is best to give students a choice of topics at the very least rather than force someone to talk about goldfish when they know nothing about them other than that they are orange.

With elementary kids it is vital to pick topics the children know well, such as talk about a member of your family, your pet, what you like eating, what you like doing in your spare time, describe one of your favorite TV programmes, your morning routine before school, your journey to school and what you see out of the window, and so on.

All the talkers talk at the same time so you have to accept a certain amount of noise and you cannot expect to control and correct everything that is said. This is a fluency exercise so errors are to be expected. When the minute is up, the right row moves one seat down and the last person comes to the front near you so they are talking to different people. The left side never moves. The people on the right talk on the same topic repeatedly so they have a chance to become more and more fluent at expressing themselves.

Then to give the listeners a chance to contribute and give value to their listening activity have each talker ask a listener a question about their topic. See how many listeners were really listening! In the next class swap listeners and talkers over. Keep the time carefully because this makes things move along and more fun.

With advanced students you can vary the game by giving a 2-minute talking period to allow students to go into their topic in more depth.

A SECOND DIALOGUE IDEA NEEDING NO PREP FROM THE TEACHER

Have the children write up a dialogue for homework on a given
topic. Then get them to cut their dialogue into strips. Mix ALL the A's
into one tub and ALL the B's into another tub.

The kids then split into A's and B's and each one takes 5 strips from each
tub. The A's and B's then go through the dialogues they have randomly
taken, then swap with a different partner. Some of the dialogues will
make sense and some will be funny.

Then they could change their silly dialogue to a sensible one as a pair
and perform it to the class, the silly one and the sensible one.

You don't have to prepare anything for that you see - the kids do the prep
work!

More ideas like this in my teen/adult games book
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm

Kind regards
Shelley

Proof that language games really do get students talking

2009-10-28T04:20:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear enthusiastic teachers,

The Proof is in the Pudding!
Language games really do get your students talking, even the shy ones.

Rewards really do come to teachers who make the effort to teach in a way that appeals to their students, and not in a way that anaesthetizes them!!

Today I received an email which I like immensely because:

1. The teacher is using my free games rather than letting them sit in her inbox.

2. She immediately had good results

3. Suddenly all her students who were reluctant to speak were calling out sentences in English

4. And she added her own innovative and amusing twist to the game which I will share with you now.

This email is about the Blanket Game, which is the first free one in my series.
This teacher immediately used it and found it got her students talking enthusiastically right away.

Check out her short story here. There are mistakes in the English but I preferred to leave the email in it's original form so you can see that it is really genuine.

Dear Shelly,
>
> Thank you for your free games. I have tried your game and it's fun, both
> for me and the students. I'm teaching English to students aged 10 to
> 13. But here in Thailand our language is nothing
> similar to yours. So even the kids are big kids but they still don't want
> to speak.

> As soon as I tried your blanket game, 5 out of 6 kids are happy
> shouting "What are you doing? What are you cooking?" (I have some cheap
> plastic toys for them to pretend cooking behind the blanket.) Of course,
> I sat among them and joined in the game and left the two chairs do the job
> of holding the blanket.

> We have cooked roasted lemon, boiled french fries,
> baked garlic, donut soup and many more funny food. Except only one
> thirteen-year-old girl that still kept quiet most of the time - perhaps
> she's not that thrilled like younger kids.
>
> I have used tricks and rewards and everything I could think of since I
> started some years ago. I believe it's the same technique (make them fun
> and love English) but your games safe me a lot of time preparing."

How to deal with mixed age-groups among children

2009-10-27T14:10:00.000-07:00

Hello my dear Blog readers,

This post concerns a lady teaching a mixed age group of children from three to seven, in small groups, the problems she is having and my suggestions to her.

If you are also teaching children in a mixed age group then you might like this post.

FIRST THE TEACHER'S BACKGROUND

> Hi Shelley,
>
> How are you? I don't know if you respond to queries but in case you do, I
> thought I'd write to you. I have bought lots of your e- books on teaching
> English through games. Previously I have used them intermittently with
> texts books as I have been working in fairly traditional academies and the
> children have enjoyed the games immensely.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PUPILS

> This year I have the amazing opportunity to create my own syllabus in a centre
> which supports teaching through play, I have no desks, no chairs and no books,
> just 10 children between 3 and 7 years of age. Most of the children are about 5
> and there is the odd 7 year old and three year old. I have them once a week for
< one hour.

NOW FOR THE PROBLEM

The problem is I am finding it very difficult to control them, I
> can´t get all their attention at the same time and I can't get the games up and
> running effectively. I am finding that they get over excited and chaos
> reigns in the classroom. I am beginning to get angry, which doesn't work
> either. I find it easier getting them doing some arty/crafty exercise even
> though I don't feel that it is hugely beneficial to their English. HMMMPH!
> Would you have any helpful tips by any chance?
>
> I would greatly appreciate any advice you have, however I'd understand if
> you get inundated with questions like this one.

AND MY SUGGESTIONS

Thanks for your email. I do indeed respond to all queries.

I'm glad you have had good use out of the resources so far. They should
be absolutely IDEAL for your small group teaching situation.

The major challenge that you have is having a three year old in there with
the other children - I mean is that MAD or what!

I would see if you can have the three year olds separately, or not at all.
They just do not function at the same pace as the others. Still if you
have to keep them there then I would more or less not worry about teaching
them anything - let them absorb what they can, ask them simple vocab
questions when it's their turn (such as always asking them "blue" while
the others are on silver, gold and purple.

Don't IGNORE the three year olds but don't hold back the class to teach
them. Just tell them how well they are doing, smile, encouragement, and
ask them v. easy stuff that they know. Then they will at least feel part
of the team.

I would aim to go at the pace of the five year olds and try to give the
seven year olds (who presumably can learn faster) some jobs like leading
games. For example if you play All Change, at first you call out the
words/sentences. Then give the seven year olds a turn at that, so they
feel special, they are being stretched beyond the others, and they are not
bored by the class.

With small groups it really is possible to quite a bit of tailoring like
that.

An ideal thing for that is my plays and skits because you can give the
bigger roles to the older ones. The three year old can be paired up with
an older child and be given the same lines, and it really does not matter
if they say them or not - I mean don't worry - those kids will pick
something up whatever - but you cannot go at their pace or you will lose
the rest of the class.

There is a free play in the Food lesson plans called The Best Restaurant
and all the flashcards you need including the worm paté and the fly soup.
Try that out. If you like it there's another one on the plays page called
Ready Steady Go. One of the seven year olds could be the driver for
example, that part has the most lines.

I do think that when you only have them once a week for an hour it is a
bit of a cop-out to do arts and crafts! Take a look in the primary games
book detailed index for games that are described as calm. There are
plenty of nice calm games like the Find the Pairs Memory game. It's v.
possible to play games like All Change calmly too.

I used to say things like "Would you like me to speak to your father when
he comes to collect you?" I never made threats that I did not carry out.

Check out on my articles page - there are two or three articles on
classroom dicipline / management - quite a few ideas there though I think
I put them all in the introduction of the primary games book.

I hope some of you reading this post found it useful!

Kind regards
Shelley

Teaching Twos

2009-10-22T12:24:00.001-07:00

This post is on teaching two year olds and the fact is that it's never too early to start learning a language.

I compiled a special report on teaching two year olds from interviewing 250 teachers.
Today I received this email message below from a customer who is just starting out with under twos. And she gave me this lovely idea. Thanks very much to her for the contribution.

You can see from reading her message below that it really is simple to teach two year olds. You just have to play along with them. You have to play at THEIR level. The good news is that once you have found something they like, they just can't get enough of it!!

"I loved your tips on working with two-year-olds, and
already am seeing one of them (18-months now) often. He loves crawling on
the sofa behind me. When I start saying, "Where's Saba? I don't see him!",
he gets very quiet and stays just behind my back. I pretend to look under
the table, in a big basket, etc while saying, "maybe he's under the table"
etc. Finally, he makes a noise, and I say, "Ohhhh! I heard something behind
me. I look slowly (as though afraid) around and finally "see" and grab him.
He can play this over and over and over! He already understands "where". He
also recognizes a few other English words (ball, car). And I play "where is"
with him with those objects too."

All the best
Shelley

PS For those of you starting out with teaching twos, or teaching your own children, the teaching twos report is included with my preschool stories on the site.
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/3-5.htm

Making reading more fun

2009-09-02T08:11:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

Here is an email I received today about making reading and listening more fun:

> Dear Shelley
> I really appreciate the help you-ve offered me and I bet you I-m going to
> work on that, Oh! by the way one more thing can you gime some suggestions
> to make my reading and listenning classes more interesting, cause
> sometimes the students get bored easily specially because the readings are
> not so funny.

I had this fun idea which just popped up from somewhere in that brain of mine.
I think this would be great fun to do as it challenges the readers to read convincingly and naturally and it engages the listeners fully rather than having them listening passively.

The scenario:
You have a reading passage.
Ask a class member to read out a part of it and so on around the class until a few students have had a turn at reading while others listen. Yawn...pretty dull way of doing things.

Take the same scenario and liven it up!

1. Cut up a piece of paper so that you have one strip per student in your class.

2. Write out five sentences that have nothing to do with the reading passage, or are related but don't fit exactly. Then write out scribbles on all the other pieces. Why scribbles? Because other students will not know from a distance if those scribbles are sentences, whereas someone could more easily see if a paper is blank.

3. Shuffle the papers and hand them out one per student. Students insert these into their reading book and/or position them so that no one else can see them.

4. Randomly pick a student to read. The student reads the paragraph and somewhere in there he/she must insert the rogue sentence WITHOUT the class noticing.

The job of the other students is to listen carefully and spot the rogue sentence, if there is one. They won't know at any time if there really is such a sentence so they will have to listen all the more carefully.

5. After reading the paragraph see if there are any votes for a rogue sentence.
And also ASK A QUESTION about the passage.

Listening out for rogue sentences helps on several levels:

1. Firstly it is quite a skill to read a passage out and naturally slip in a sentence that does not fit or sounds silly. It will be fun for the students to try to do this without giving the game away through hesitation or laughing.

2. The other students have a really good reason to listen, because they are not just listening passively to some content, but are actively engaged in trying to spot something that sounds out of context or unlikely content.

Now don't use this idea everytime or it will get boring and get one of my books so you have more ideas like it!

Bye for now
Shelley
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com

2009-07-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

Hello there,

I received this email today from a customer in South Korea and I thought that it might make for useful reading for others, so here is the email and my reply.

Your comments are of course welcome!
I gave a quick reply but plenty more can be said on this subject.

>
>
> Dear Ms. Shelley Vernon,
>
> Thank you very much for your help.Â The teaching method that you've send
> me are all very useful. My students from 5 years to adults are enjoying. My
> kindergarten students remember all the vocabulary easily using your method of
> teaching.
>
> Thanks you very much.
> Name: I deleted this to respect the teacher's privacy.
>
> P.S.
>
> I want to ask some suggestions. In all my class I give some points and
> earning a lot of points I give them some reward. Because in my class I don't want > them to talk in Korean all english.
>
> If they talk in Korean and don't behave well I minus the points. Giving
> points it helps a lot to me because they try to talk in english. And they try to >do their homework becuase they don't want to lose points. But some students stole >other students points, that's why feel not good. Other students cried not having
> the points. Can you give me some other way to motivate them to do homework
> and only talk in english?

And this is my reply:

OK why don't you try this for a few weeks and see how it goes:

When they talk in Korean ignore them.
When they say anything in English praise them and use their name.

Never use their name when telling them off - it's a way of giving
significance. Always use the name when praising.

I don't think one wants to have too much competition and pressure at age 5
- goodness they are going to get plenty of that later. So you could use
the points system but not systematically - just from time to time as a
special event - then you have to be sure every one gets something so you
don't demoralise them.

You see young children are soooooo fragile. Those kids who do not have
any points and see that others do can feel like failures. This can affect
them in their whole lives and not just in English.

You want to be achieving the exact OPPOSITE effect which is to make all
the children love themselves and feel good about themselves.

All the best
Shelley

Using Multi-media to Teach English to Children

2009-02-26T03:15:00.000-08:00

Teaching English is an art-form. There are many approaches and methods from which to
choose, and such a choice may be influenced by the age and level of the students, time, learning preferences, special needs, and – of course – the resources available to the instructor.

Teaching English to children, moreover, poses its own particular challenges, and imposes even more particular demands on the instructor. Instructors must take into account learners' short attention spans and/or lack of discipline and possibly underdeveloped linguistic foundations in the learners' native languages (i.e. young learners may not yet be able to read or write in their own language by the time they begin to learn English). Additionally, teachers should take an instructional approach that fosters positive experiences and provides a supportive learning environment, rather than placing emphasis on correctness or grades.

Luckily, in today's technologically-advanced world, the recent proliferation of computer-based curricula (or blended learning designs for language learning) in school systems - including for very young learners - has opened doors to English teachers all over the world.

In fact, whether we like it or not, computers are permeating every aspect of our daily lives, and children are not only embracing the technology at hand, but they would not know what to do without it. As instructors, therefore, it is our duty not only to teach the next generation what we know, but to adopt new methods of instruction which are more appropriate to the context in which we are living – and in which our students are growing up.

Now teachers have stimulating tools and rich libraries of multi-media materials available to them to better adapt educational content to the specific needs and preferences of the learner. Videos, games, speech recognition tools, and internet-based communication can all add vast depth to traditional instruction materials - such as text books. Incorporating multi-media into the language curriculum, therefore, engages students in more communicative, authentic, contextualized, and
interactive activities that practice all four skills in an integrated fashion, and even provide instant feedback.

In addition, utilizing multi-media not only provides stimulating and effective instruction in a manner to which most young students are already accustomed due to their extracurricular (i.e. non-educational) activities, but also allows teachers flexibility with course content, and provides a learning environment in which students can begin to develop autonomy.

Join the English Journey! There is a free trial here for you to check out.
Learn English the easy way.

Teaching the weather and seasons

2008-03-29T09:34:00.000-07:00

Here's a reply to Erna asking how to teach the weather and seasons to her group of nine year olds - she does not have my book of games:

OK the free games you are receiving can be used for ANY vocab, including weather and seasons.

I would use JUMP THE LINE to teach the words first - where you put up a line on the board and put some words to the left and some to the right - actually it's much better to put up pictures or draw some rain, a cloud, some sun etc. Then you call out SUN and the children jump to the left or right, depending on whether the sun is on the left or the right of the line. When you see the children make a mistake come back to that word over and over Sun, cloud, Sun, cloud, sun, SUN!! - You say it fast - it's a speedy game - that's what makes it fun - you want to try and catch them jumping the wrong way. If you do it slowly it's dull as ditch water! Gradually add in new pictures and words.

Then play RELAY RACE
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/games/relayrace.htm

Then you could play the Blanket Game where a child who is hiding stands on one of the weather pictures. (That's the first free game that you received)
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com/games/blanketgame.htm

You can do some miming games where one group mimes a season and the others have to guess which season it is.

Play a match up game where kids with a type of weather have to find each other in class by saying their type of weather or a sentence like: I love sunny weather. All the children with that sentence have to find each other - but they cannot show their sentence to the others - it has to be done by speaking only.

And so on! Lots of ideas in my book if you can afford it of course.

All the best
Shelley
http://www.teachingenglishgames.com

Role-Play Idea for Speaking Practise

2007-12-14T06:58:00.001-08:00

Hello there teachers,

I just received this request from a teacher and I thought this made a really useful role-play to share with everyone:

"Thanks you very much for your games. They help me very much in my teaching. My students have been very excited.

Now I have difficulty in finding a way to give my students to the lesson of speaking. Can you suggest me some exciting activity? Here is the content of the lesson:

Plans to make life in a village better:
Widen the road
Build a medical center
Build a football ground
Grow cash crop
Build a bridge over the canal.
Build a new school

Possible results of the plan
Cars and lorries can get to the village
People's health is looked after
Young people can play sport
People can have more money
People have a shorter way to city
Children have better learning condition

Students have to use "if clause" to talk about plan and result."

My reply idea for this is to role-play a committee meeting, with a chairman, a treasurer and committee members. Each group should be only about 6 students to allow everyone a good chance to participate. Make a guess at the cost of carrying out each of the improvements mentioned above. Then allocate a total budget to the treasurer. This should be far less than the cost of carrying out all the improvements.

Students select two or three items from the above list that they will argue for at the role-play meeting. Students put forward their priorities and argue about what should be done first. The purpose of the meeting is to come up with a plan of action listing the improvements that will be made this year and those that will be made in the next few years.

You might want to modify the list to suit your own village, town or city. Other ideas are:
Work on encouraging tourism
Adopt a scheme to preserve the natural environment
Planting more trees and landscaping
Building more homes

If you use this idea with the place where your students currently live it will feel relevant to them and they might find it interesting so you will have to modify this at will and ask the students for their ideas before elaborating your list so you know what is important to them. Teenagers might be more interested in adding a nightclub and shops to the community than landscaping!!

Do try it out and let us all know how it goes, and what new ideas you can add!

More role-play ideas can be found in the esl games and activities for adults here:
www.teachingenglishgames.com/adults.htm

Putting on a little English language show

2007-11-23T09:51:00.000-08:00

Putting on a show to parents and to the school assembly every term is really great thing to do to demonstrate what you have all been up to in class time. It motivates children during lessons and is a really fun and satisfying thing to do. If you can have someone film the show for you you can even give a copy to the children at the end. If you are teaching small groups privately this is ideal and it helps your teaching business grow as well as enhances your lessons. Parents like to see what is going on too and children love to show off so everyone wins.

Ideally you want to put on a show every term but don't panic, it doesn't have to be Broadway! A few songs, some English language games in action and perhaps a short play if you have a small group are all it takes.

If your children enjoy songs have them perform a couple of songs in English with actions. You have the children play some language games so parents can see them responding to listening games and hear them speaking. And you can also have the children act out a story while you read it. Children can also be given some lines in the story where these are simple, such as counting or naming the colours, or saying a line if it is the same each time. Then if you have a small group you can do mini-role plays, but this does not work with a large class or there is too much sitting around for everyone. A twenty minute "English" show is enough with 5 minutes beforehand for parents to arrive and sit down, and 5 minutes at the end.

If it is the first show the children may be dumb struck with nerves, daft as it seems! Therefore start the show off easily with some listening games where the children show they understand words and sentences you have taught followed by a song with actions every one sings together. Many songs have far too many words so you can always do verse 1, chorus and verse 1 again. You can also simplify the words by repeating lines 1 and 2 as lines 3 and 4, if that fits OK. Now the children are warmed up you can do some speaking games and finally any role plays and plays.

Enjoy!
Shelley

PS Wonderful ideas for preschool games and stories!

How to teach phrasal verbs to ESL students

2007-11-17T07:01:00.000-08:00

I received an email last week from a teacher asking me how to practise phrasal verbs with her small class of twelve 12 year old children and I'd like to share the following idea with you.

Phrasal verbs need to be learned in the same way as any other type of verb. Students need to learn the phrasal verb as a vocabulary item and also how to use it in sentences. It can help to learn meanings in one lesson and work on integrating the language in a different session. This anyway is helpful with lower levels so students are not overwhelmed.

A fun game to use to teach the vocabulary side of phrasal verbs is Call My Bluff Definitions. Here you give each student a phrasal verb to look up in the dictionary and ask everyone to write down the true meaning plus make up two false meanings. It is good to set this for homework so as not to use precious class time. If you want to simplify have students write only two definitions, one true and one false.

At the next lesson each student reads out the phrasal verb followed by the three definitions. The class stand up and listen all three definitions once. Then on the second reading students sit down if they think a definition is false and stay standing if they think it is true.

Let's say the first definition is false and half the students sit down. All those sitting down are still in the game so those standing put their hands on the heads and sit down. They are out for this round. Those still in stand up again and the student reads out definition two. Those who have it wrong are out again and sit down with their hands on their heads. Those that are in continue until all three definitions have been read out. You then let those students award themselves a point. Now everyone is back in again for the next phrasal verb.

If playing with adults you can leave out putting hands on heads. That is just a mechanism to prevent cheating, which children are possibly more likely to do than adults!

So now the students understand the phrasal verbs you can proceed with some listening, speaking and writing drills to practise them as you would any grammatical structure and for ideas you can sign up to the free games if you haven't already on ESL Games and Activities

Feel free to go ahead and add your comment on this game and give your own ideas on teaching phrasal verbs.

Happy teaching
Shelley