September has arrived again! The summer is almost over in this part of the world and many teachers start their classes with new students. It is time to build new relationships, a relationship of confidence between our students and us, but between students and their peers as well.
No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship. James Comer.
After many years of teaching English to students of different ages and levels, I must admit that I still get butterflies in my stomach on the first day of class. However, thanks to all those generous teachers who are online and share their successful activities on their blogs or on Twitter, I have learnt a lot on how to create an atmosphere of trust, respect and learning from day one. Now I would like to share some of those activities with you:
A Personality Test is a lesson plan created byJames Taylor. I think it is an original and useful idea mainly for Intermediate level groups, but it can also be adapted for lower levels.
Powerpointing Me is a lesson plan that I like a lot. It has been created by one of the most active teachers on the net, Karenne Sylvester. It includes different kinds of activities so that your students know you better and you know them as well using different tools or just without technology.
A Map of Me is an activity that Sandy Millin shared in her blog some months ago. I tried with my adults students last month and it worked perfectly. At the beginning they were a little bit puzzled because it was not an activity they were used to, but after a while they started to enjoy it because it is quite interactive and useful to review question formation.
I hope you find these ideas useful for your first day. If you would like to share your own ones with other teachers, don't forget to leave a comment!
Tuesday, September 03, 2013Inma AlcázarNo comments
In August, I was very lucky to teach an intensive English course for adults at the Centre d'Idiomes de la Universitat de València. Apart from the traditional resources usually used in class, I encouraged my students to take advantage of the Internet and practise English outside of the classroom using free online resources. I think that an important part of the learning process is to give students the tools that they need to continue learning independently.
These are all the websites I have
found to help my students preparing for the Preliminary English test. Some of
them do not include PET tasks, but I have decided to include them because I
think they can be useful to improve the different language skills.
All the links worked the last time
I checked them, but please let me know if any of them are broken. Equally, if
you know other interesting sites which could be added to the list, please leave a comment or write me an email.
Being interested in knowing new ways to motivate students, it was a pleasure to listen to Deborah Bullock talking about Projects to Motivate Teenagers. Her session was really dynamic. She encouraged teachers to participate and share our views and experiences on working through projects in the English class. We brainstormed some advantages and disadvantages of working on projects, thought of topics which teenagers could be interested in and draft a project idea in small groups.
These are two of the projects which were successful for Deborah:
The second session I attended was Michael O'Brien's talk on Grammar 'Goodies' or better said 'Rules'. His talk was brilliant and quite thought-provoking. He pointed out that teaching students grammar rules or recommend them to use a grammar reference to learn English is sometimes pointless. These kinds of books include unnatural sentences, dialogues and longer responses. That's not the way native speakers talk!
It is clear that there are differences between written and spoken grammar. Surely spoken grammar cannot be taught through written grammar rules and within rules, there are always exceptions. So, what kind of grammar should we teach to our students? Shouldn't we teach them some rules to guide them through their learning process? In my humble opinion, if students' main objective is to pass an examination, then by all means, - they will definitely need to study grammar! Although I'm not a big fan of constantly repeated grammar points course after course, I think grammar is necessary, is a means to master the language, not an end in itself.
An interesting point Michael O'Brien brought up was that grammar is much more than context and much more than objective time. There is also a time called psychological time which refers to the way speakers perceive actions and experiences, not what 'objectively happened'. In my opinion this is really relevant, because it is something which is not always taken into account by ELT course writers. I mean, there is only one possible correct answer in most gap fill practise activities or multiple choice quizzes, when actually it is possible to use different aspects of a tense. In order to demonstrate his view, he asked us to complete a text taken from a coursebook. Here it is the result:
He finished his speech stating that the perfect rule is that there aren't rules, it's a matter of choice. Then taking this reflection into account, I wonder if we really need to teach these kinds of things. Wouldn't it be more confusing for students? Would it help them to pass their exams?
For the last session I chose Patrick Howard's presentation whose title was Using Visuals. This session was full of practical ideas for using visuals to develop speaking skills and review vocabulary.
Drawing - Vocabulary
The first activity we did in small group was a brainstorm related to Olympic events and verbs related to sports. After that, Patrick gave us a set of cards with some words related to sports written on them. In turns we played pictionary with those cards and then a memory game with the cards and pictures we had previously drawn.
Video without sound - Describing (Present simple and continuous)
For the second activity he used the following video:
We worked in groups of three. He handed in a piece of paper with some words written on it to two members of the group who sat down in front of the screen. Then he played the video without sound and one member of each group had to describe what they could see. The people with the worksheets had to crossed those words they heard.
Photo - Speculating (Modal verbs of probability and certainty)
This time Patrick showed us a picture covered with post-it notes and we had to guess what the picture was, using modal verbs like must, could, may, might and can't. In turns, we rolled a dice and depending on the number (1 and 2 = must; 3 and 4 = could, may, might; 5 and 6 = can't) we had to use that modal verb in a sentence. I have just discovered this site which has great photos for speculating.
Describing pictures
We received half of a postcard each. The objective was to find the partner who had the piece from the same postcard. So we walk around the class describing our picture to the other teachers.
Picture cards game - Storytelling
The last game we played was a card game with a beautiful set of picture cards. It is very good to tell stories, experiences, talk about feelings and so on since it includes different kinds of cards with people, places and situations on it.
How to play (groups of 3-5 students):
- Deal four cards for each student.
- In turns, each student describes his card. The other ones listen to him and try to find a card that matches his story. They have to explain their choice.
I love attending to these kinds of teaching events since as teachers there is always something new to add, learn, improve, change or share with other colleagues.
Can you imagine a world without music? No tunes, no songs, no melodies, no singers or concerts. Music surrounds us and it is an important part of our lives, as well as of our students' lives. They are enjoyable, motivating, full of examples of real English and, therefore, very effective tools for reviewing vocabulary, grammar structures, pronunciation, culture and dealing with social issues in upper-intermediate and advanced classes.
What is very important to bear in mind before choosing a song are the objectives, the resources we will use and the activities we will use so that students can achieve their goals and develop the different language skills.
Try not to choose songs that are popular among teenagers because, although they may love and enjoy them, they will already know the lyrics and the activities you have carefully prepared may become an absolutely flop.
Digital resources for our classes
Tune into English is one of my favourite sites because it offers a section for teachers and another one for students. In the teachers section you will find lesson plans created by teachers to use different kinds of songs in your classes. Those lessons plans are in word format, what means that you can adapt the activities to suit your students' needs. Within the students area, students will find a lot of games, resources and links to learn more about music and learn English through songs.
TEFLTunes is a great place to find song ideas for teaching grammar and topics. However, not all the resources provided are free. There are free lesson plans but if you want get full access, you will need to subscribe and pay £10GBP.
Lyrics training is another great tool for students to improve their understanding of lyrics. The site includes YouTube videoclips which are organised in different levels of difficulty and cloze-type activities to complete the whole song.
What I do not like so much about it is that it includes a wide range of songs and some of them may be not suitable for pre-teens or teenagers.
Wednesday, January 04, 2012Inma AlcázarNo comments
Films have always been a great source of ideas and an excellent resource we can use to suit our English classes, motivate our students and help them develop their listening, speaking and writing skills.
Apart from that, films are a highly valuable source of authentic language since they are full of vocabulary, expressions and structures that native speakers use. They are perfect to bring the English-speaking world into the classroom.
The question for teachers is what kinds of film clips we can use, what for and how to use them.
What kinds of films can we use and how?
Did you know that there are some absolutely fabulous teachers’ blogs which can inspire you to create your own activities to suit your students’ needs? Through their blogs they share their own materials just for free and give useful tips on how to create your own ones.
One of them is Film English, a wonderful project started by Kieran Donaghy, an English teacher at UAB Idiomes Barcelona, whose aim is to promote the use of film in the language classroom. In this blog you will find lesson plans around different topics such as jobs, money and greed, football and values, among others.
Claudio Azevedo is another teacher who I have inspired me and I have learnt a lot from. He publish his own resources in two blogs:
Movie Segments for Warm-ups and Follow-upswhich includes a series of movie segments to be used to brainstorm and prepare students for the topic that will be discussed in class.
What can I say about Jamie Keddie’sLessonstream website? Well, he is a really creative and enthusiastic teacher and this can just be seen by visiting his new website full of free lesson plans based on films for different levels and aims.
Next week, I will publish the second part of this post with more ideas and examples on how to work with films in the English class.
The spooky, scary Halloween festival is just round the corner! These are some activities and ideas which came to my mind after reading The English Raven Halloween lesson materials design challenge. Are you ready to invite your students to plan your school Halloween party?
Given the many different places that "native" English speakers hail from, there is no such thing as perfect English pronunciation. That said, knowing how to pronounce words is an important part of learning any language. If you are struggling with pronunciation or know a student who is struggling, the following free resources may help:
SpokenSkills - SpokenSkills offers many different resources for ESL teachers, language professionals and students, including vowel sounds, consonant sounds, audio and video clips, and listening comprehension podcasts.
Merriam-Webster's Learner's Dictionary - This online learning dictionary from Merriam-Webster provides 15 free sessions of perfect pronunciation exercises for ESL students. Each session includes practice with words, phrases, and sentences.
New English File - This Oxford University Press site offers pronunciation practice for beginner, elementary, pre-intermediate, intermediate, upper-intermediate, and advance
d level English language learners. Students in each level can check their pronunciation of English sounds against audio files and play games to reinforce learning.
Fonetiks - Fonetiks offers comprehensive pronunciation guides for nine different varieties of the English language. Other site features include an online English dictionary with instant sound, minimal pair practice, an interactive reading course, a list of words that are difficult to pronounce, and a pronunciation guide for names of people and places.
Inogolo - Inogolo is an online American English pronunciation guide for ESL and EFL learners. The guide includes pronunciations for the names of people, places, and things.
Howjsay - Howsjay is a talking online dictionary that contains audio pronunciations for more than 130,000 English words and phrases. If the word you are looking for is not contained in the dictio
nary, you can post a question about the word on the site's comment board.
English Interactive - English Interactive links to a wide range of sites that offer English pronunciation practice. Other site features include interactive vocabulary practice with audio and conversation resources.
American English Pronunciation Practice - Charles Kelley, a textbook writer and ESL enthusiast, created this page for ESL and EFL students who need pronunciation practice. The page includes listen and repeat videos, tongue twisters, and game-like minimal pair practice using Flash and MP3 files.
Write Back Soon - Radio Lingua Network provides several different podcasts for English learners, including this phrasal verb podcast known as Write Back Soon. The podcast series consists of eight archived episodes that help ESL students understand and practice phrasal verbs.
Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab - This online listening lab is great for students who need speaking, listening, and pronunciation practice. The lab provides short listening quizzes and activities for beginner and intermediate students as well as videos of long conversations and interviews for more advanced students.
Phonetics Flash Animation Project - This online project from the University of Iowa features animated libraries of phonetic sounds of English. An animated diagram, description, and audio file of the sound being used in context are available for each English consonant and vowel.
KanTalk - Created specifically for English students who need spoken English practice, this online community offers a space to practice conversations and share recordings and videos.
Busuu - Busuu is an international language learning community for people who want to practice English and other languages with native speakers. The site's integrated video-chat-application makes it easy to chat with anyone you meet on Busuu.
SharedTalk - SharedTalk is a free Rosetta Stone community that provides both voice and text chat for members who want to practice their language skills online.
Livemocha - Livemocha is a popular online language learning community that supports six different languages, including English. Students can use the site to find language partners, user-made videos, and other ESL resources.
AddLang - AddLang makes it easy for students to practice pronunciation with native English speakers over Skype. Students can also practice their English with other AddLang members using MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and AOL Messenger
UsingEnglish.com - The English Language Discussion Forum on UsingEnglish.com has a special section just for students who want to discuss questions related to pronunciation, phonetics, and other aspect of speech. The forum also offers an "Ask the Teacher" section for students who need additional help.
Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about pharmacy technician certification for PharmacyTechnicianCertification.com.
If you students need help with pronunciation, listening and writing, Speak N' Spell can be the perfect software to recommend them and use in the classroom. How does it work?
The first time you open it, if you want to add a specific word list for your students you have to open the Word Maintenance, clear the table and add your own words saving your own list. Doing this, they can revise this dictionary (add or delete words), use their own set of words (clear the table and add words), or load a plain text file with words. They can also save the word list to a plain text file. Make such a file one word per line and save the file with a ".txt" suffix."
There are several levels of difficulty in which your students have to guess the word they hear:
Easy: words with three letters.
Medium: words with four to six letters.
Hard: words with seven to ten letters.
Hardest: words with more than ten letters.
Mixed: any word included in the dictionary can be pronounced.
How to use it in the classroom? An Speak N' Spell Game
1. You will need the Speak N' Spell Software, a computer or laptop and a projector to play this game with your students.
2. Divide your students into two groups and explain that they are going to play Speak N' Spell game. First, they will hear a word and then, they have to guess what word is it in turns.
3. The teacher, then, presses the new word key to listen it. The first student who guesses it correctly has to raise his hand, spell the word and make a sentence with it. This depends on your students' level. Sometimes it is difficult for beginners to create a sentence, therefore, you can give them the chance of just spelling it.
4. If the student's answer is right, his team win a point.
5. The winner is the team that get the highest score.
Some students need extra practice outside of class. Fortunately, there are many different websites to practice and learn English online. Here are 20 free sites to recommend to your students:
Learn English
Livemocha - Livemocha is a popular language learning site used by millions of people around the world. Students can learn from online language lessons and chat with other language learners.
VerbaLearn - VerbaLearn is an excellent place to learn and practice English vocabulary. Students can customize the way they learn and receive mp3 study lists.
English as a Second Language - This About.com site provides thousands of free ESL resources to help people learn English. Resources include free English courses, grammar and vocabulary practice, tests, quizzes, and other English learning tools.
Transparent Language - Transparent Language offers a number of free resources to students who are trying to learn English, including an overview of the language, learning software, and online quizzes.
The English Club - This site offers free lessons, videos, games, stories, quizzes and other helpful resources to students who want to learn English for free. Students can also chat online and practice their English with other club members.
Learn English - Learn English has been a valuable resource for EFL/ESL learners for more than ten years now. The site teaches students English vocabulary, grammar, and conversation and then tests their knowledge with quizzes and games.
Learn English Online - Learn English Online offers a free 52-lesson EFL/ESL course for beginners. Each lesson includes writing and pronunciation practice.
Fonetiks - This site offers free audio pronunciation guides for nine varieties of the English language, including American English, British English, Irish English, Scottish English, Welsh English, Australian English, Indian English, and South African English.
Merriam-Webster - The online version of Merriam-Webster is an excellent place for ESL students to learn new words. The site offers a search feature, a "word of the day," and fun word games.
Babel Fish - This free online translator from Yahoo! can translate single words, a block of text, or entire web pages--a great way for ESL students to learn new English phrases.
Practice English
ManyThings.org - EFL and ESL learners can practice their pronunciation with the free audio games on this site.
ESL Fast - Digital robots help ESL learners practice their English on ESL Fast. Visitors can practice conversations for hotels, apartments, college, transportation, travel, employment, entertainment, shopping, and daily life.
ESL Forum - This online forum is the most popular ESL forum on the web. It can be used by both students and teachers who want to practice writing and discuss ESL learning.
Dave's ESL Cafe - Dave's ESL Cafe offers a wide range of resources to ESL students and teachers. Students who want to practice their English writing and communication skills will especially enjoy the large student forum.
ESL Flashcards - ESL students can practice their English with this enormous collection of free ESL flashcards and printables.
Online Books Page - Students can practice their English reading skills with the free books found on the Online Books Page. There are more than 35,000 books to choose from in all.
Bibliomania - Like the Online Books Page, Bibliomania offers a large selection of free English literature. The site also provides study guides to popular books as well as other learning materials.
IPL - The Internet public library is another good place to practice English reading skills. This online library offers free books, magazines, newspapers, and other reading materials.
Ohio University Department of Linguistics - Ohio University has assembled a nice collection of links to online English language tests. ESL students can use these tests to assess their knowledge level and determine where they need practice.
Peterson's TOEFL Quiz - Students who want to practice for the TOEFL can take this quick online quiz from Peterson's. The quiz tests reading comprehension and can be scored with the click of a button.
Guest post from education writer Karen Schweitzer. Karen is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes for the Online Colleges Database at OnlineColleges.net.
Yesterday, Karen Schweitzer, an experienced freelance writer and copyeditor who also writes for About.com and other education companies, sent me this article with very valuable information about Free ESL Teaching Resources.
Every teacher needs a little help now and then inside the classroom and out. Fortunately, there are plenty of free ESL teaching resources that can be found online. Here are 30 useful sites worth checking out today.
General Teaching Resources
Education World - Education World is one of the best online resources for teachers. This site hosts information about professional development, lesson planning, and other resources that educators can use.
Teachers Network - This non-profit organization was created by teachers for other teachers. The Teacher's Network offers up-to-date research, news, lesson plans, videos, and much more.
Teacher Magazine - This online magazine provides news and a collection of blogs for teachers. Other features include polls, interviews, and interactive forums.
GEM - The Gateway to Education Materials (GEM) is brimming with free teaching resources and tools. Teachers can choose from more than 50,000 free resources.
Teacher Planet - With more than 350 theme based resource pages, Teacher Planet is a good place to come up with ideas and information for themed activities and lessons.
General Lesson Plans
PBS Teachers - This PBS site is an excellent place to find free, standards-based lesson plans for a wide range of subjects.
Discovery Education - The online lessons library from Discovery Education includes hundreds of free teacher-created lesson plans.
Scholastic - Scholastic provides a number of timely, thematic lessons for teachers. Many of the lessons are free. An additional 10,000 lessons can be accessed for a small fee.
Thinkfinity - Sponsored by the Verizon Foundation, this popular site includes free lessons, interactives, and other useful resources for teachers.
Lesson Planz - Lesson Planz is an online directory of lesson plans. Using this Internet directory is a great way to find free lesson plans without going from site to site.
ESL-Specific Lesson Plans
The Internet TESL Journal - This site has thousands of free resources for EFL and ESL teachers. Some of the best resources include lesson plans, classroom activities, games, and articles on teaching techniques.
Using English - Using English is an excellent source for free ESL lesson plans and printables. The site also hosts forums, articles, and useful links.
English as a Second Language - English as a Second Language is an About.com site with free lesson plans for students of any level. The site also includes printable quizzes, tests, and English learning tools.
ESL Galaxy- This site provides nearly 3,000 free worksheets that can be used in ESL lessons. New worksheets and activities are added on a weekly basis.
Read Write Think - Although this site isn't aimed at ESL teachers, it does offer reading lessons and materials for English readers at almost every reading level. Read Write Think also includes the IRA and NCTE's standards for the English Language Arts.
Worksheets and Worksheet Generators
Educational Press - Teachers can make and print all of the free educational worksheets, flashcards, game boards, and quizzes they want with the Personal Education Press.
TEFL.net - Created specifically for ESL and EFL teachers, TEFL.net has more worksheets, lesson plans, activities, and quizzes than one teacher could use. The site also has a worksheet generator so that teachers can create their own worksheets.
Teachnology - Teachnology offers more than 6,000 printable worksheets sorted by category. The site is also a good resource for lesson plans and other printables.
Family Education - Family Education is a great place to find printables for almost any reading level. This site also includes a number of other resources ESL teachers can implement in the classroom.
Super Teacher Worksheets - This site is an excellent source for ELA worksheets. Specific topics include grammar, printing, cursive, phonics, reading, reading comprehension, and writing prompts.
Flashcards and Flashcard Makers
ESL Flashcards - ESL teachers can download hundreds of free flashcards from this site. Flashcards come in three different sizes.
Flashcard Exchange - Teachers can make, print, and exchange flashcards on this easy-to-use website. Flashcards can also be studied online.
Scholastic - The Homework Hub Flashcard Maker from Scholastic is great for math and word flashcards. The flashcards you make are printable. Make up to four cards at a time.
Kitzkikz - This no-frills flashcard maker is great for making versatile flashcards. Just print, cut, fold, and study.
Flashcard Machine - Teachers can create web based flashcards using this free web app. Flashcard Machine also hosts more than 10 million ready-to-use flashcards.
Teacher's Blogs
TeacherLingo - TeacherLingo is a blog community for teachers. Educators can create blogs, read blogs, and network with other teachers.
Edublogs - Edublogs hosts thousands of blogs for students, teachers, librarians, and other educators. The site is great for teachers who want to introduce blogging to their students.
So You Want To Teach? - This teacher-run blog is a great place to find motivation, teaching resources, and information about classroom management and personal development.
My ESL Corner - This teacher-run blog is a wonderful place for ESL teachers to share resources, news, and teaching tips.
Online Teaching Degree - The TeachingDegree.org blog is a good place to learn more about teaching education and degree options for ESL teachers.
What is Internet4Classroom? A long time ago two enthusiastic American proffesionals, Susan Brooks and Bill Byles, began a collaborative project to help teachers to integrate New Technologies in the classroom in an effective way but it was so great that it arrived to the net for all of us in 2000.
What can we find on this wonderful site?
1. A site mapwith all the site items organized alphabetical order.
1. Online tutorialsto help teachers to use programs such us Work, Powerpoint, etc; pedagogical tools such as Webquests; multimedia authoring tools such as Hyperstudio, a tools which allows you to integrate text, voice, pictures... and others.
2. In the same section, there are lessons as well which include useful examples and tips about how to use them in the classroom and many resources you can find on the net.
A long time ago, I wrote a post about the best site for finding ESL resources for all levels,ESLPrintables. Today, I would like to recommend you other two great sites full of resources: Curriculumbits and Ziggity Zoom.
Curriculumbitsis a site which was launched in 2006 full of free interactive multimedia resources not just for ESL teaching but also but also for Bilingual Schools since it includes materials for subjects such as Geography, Biology, Art & Design, Maths, PE or Physics. As it is said in the site "Resources have been produced according to key stage 3 and 4 of the UK National Curriculum for students aged 11 to 16. All resources are produced by elearning multimedia specialists in collaboration with every day teaching staff as a direct solution to their classroom requirements."
The Teaching Resource Libraryincludes games, quizzes, interactive animations and videos to use in the classroom. There are not many resources for English yet, but it worths visiting it!!
However, if you are looking for a great site full of ESL resources for preschool and primary (first cycle) the alternative
is Ziggity Zoom: a place where children will get excited and have fun playing games, colouring pictures, reading and listenting stories about different characters, watching vid
