Why are you so petrified of silence?

Why is it as language teachers we sometimes feel grossly uncomfortable when the class is sitting in silence. We sometimes think, these guys are learning a language why on Earth aren't they speaking it, ALL THE TIME?

Last year I had the good fortune of working with some great teachers and here I picked up a number of great activities. One of which was centred almost entirely around the notion of a silent classroom. I used this wonderful warmer and have since adapted it for my teenage PET class and will do so with my pre-advanced class later in the term.

So the big question. How can we make students speak without making a sound?

It's pretty simple really, they write to each other. The first time I did this in class, I did it with every single level I had.

I made sure they entered the class in absolute silence. There was a slide on the board (which you can find here) which told them they weren't to speak to each other but they could communicate through scraps of paper and a pencil.
The slide also contained a couple of starter questions to help them on their way.
For the kiddies it was stuff like: "What did you do at school today?"
For the adults something similar but a little more complex like: What did you get up to at work today?


It worked really well.

For that very reason I decided to do it again, this time with my PET students. I told them to make sure they brought their mobile phones to class.

When they entered the room in silence they could see the activity outline up on the board . I sat them in a circle facing away from each other and gave each of them a piece of paper to write their number on.

I then gave the numbers out to different students.  I then let them chat to each other, freely. In English, in silence. I put a few ideas up on the board to help them out. I gestured questioningly towards my students to see if anyone wanted to make a suggestion at a conversation starter. If so they had the chance to write it up on the board (without using words of course)

The next step was to see if they could deal with multitasking.  I ushered them to change numbers and add the new person to their group. There were then three people in each group and everyone was speaking to in two groups each.

At first this caused a bit of an issue, but soon enough their amazing teenage brains adapted to it and their multiwhatsapping brain came to the fore. After a good ten minutes I stopped everyone and asked them to read aloud what had come up in their conversations.

Some of it was surprisingly deep, two of the students had got themselves into a discussion as to how the Spanish education system was in desperate need for reform. Other students were talking about how good Cristiano's goal was the night before. Best of all though they had been writing in English and correcting each other's work and having fun at the same time. Never in my life have I seen a group of 12 teenagers so happy to sit in silence and speak English to each other. It was utterly glorious.

Give it a go. If your students don't have phones, just give them some scraps of paper and get them to pass them around.

'til the next time

Talking Movies

I have got a great pre-advanced class. I only get to see them once a week on a Friday for three hours. Sadly for them next week is parents day so they'll be missing their class. As I'm obviously a very conscientious teacher and know that whilst being away from the classroom, even the best of students will lose touch with the language. For that reason, rather than just setting a whole bunch of homework from the book and past papers I decided to set a movie review as homework.

Whilst having a chat with my DOS, Chris,  we came up with a nice little idea. Rather than just setting them on their way to write about any old film we came up with a lesson plan to really engage our students in the lesson process.

1.Speaking part three with grabactivity

2. Select two movies each, discuss in pairs, down to one.

3. Each pair puts their idea forward. Class decides on final from the four or five selected.

4. Students decided which film to watch.

5. Find real reviews of the film online for them to read at home.


In the next class.


1. In pairs then as a class. Discuss the film.

2. Talk about the language used in the reviews they read as homework.

3. Create a plan.

4. Work in pairs to write review or do a circular writing.

5. Homework. Write your own review.


Right then. I'm off to class. Have a delightful weekend one and all.

'til the next time

H

Potatoes and Their True Potential

I've got root vegetables on the mind. Root vegetables? What are you on about Harry?!

I recently sparked a great deal of interest in one of my classes by walking simply placing a potato on my desk as the class walked in.

"Teacher, A potato?" questioned a rather befuddled Alfredo.

"Yes, Alfredo, it's a potato. Very good but what else could it be?" I asked the teenager usually nattering away in Spanish as he walks in.

He stopped in his tracks and respond it could be a Spanish omelette if we just added a few eggs and some onions.

After getting a few of the more obvious answers I got students to sit down in groups and try and write 10 unique uses of a potato.  We got a few good ones. A door stop. a pencil holder, a paper weight and one particularly strange students felt it would work well as an instrument of death as you could destroy the evidence in a delicious fashion. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry. Or run to my car.

It's a great way to upgrade lower level students' language. I had my kids 4 (10 year old) saying things like:

"Well, it's a potato but it could be used as a toy."

For my B1 adults I created a quick conversation template that I put up on the board to get them to use language slightly above their level.

A: "Well, It's obviously a potato, but it could be used as a............ or even a........... not to mention a............."

B: "I see you're point. They're all great ideas. However, I'm pretty sure it would be best used as a............ . What do you reckon?"

My favourite idea from this class came from a lady in her early fifties who suggested the best use of a potato would be as a fake breast.

I've also found with my higher level students, teens in particular, it's a great way to get them using their mobile phones in class. Words like doorstop and bookend don't tend to pop up in everyday language, so after they've described what it could be used as:

"It could be used as the thing that keeps doors open."

I get them to take out their phones and ask Google exactly what it is. They type in, "What's the name of the thing that is used to keep doors open, in English."

As a warmer I found this really worked and got the students thinking straight away. I went on to try it with other vegetables and then on to other household items. By the end of the month students were disappointed if they walked in and there wasn't a foreign object sitting on my desk waiting to be analyzed.

Another fantastic item is the eternally useful paper clip. Which can be used as practical things such as opening your iPhone or other more surreal ideas like the zip on a zipline for small beasties. I was particularly fond of that idea.

Yesterday I ended the activity by telling my students that potatoes could be anything, which meant they were potatoes. I then went rouind and each students stated loud and proud. I AM A POTATO.

Give it a try. Get your students thinking outside the box as soon as they walk into the room. It'll go down as a class that lives long in the memory. That's for sure.

Til next time

Songs and Translation

Just a quicky today as classes start in 13 minutes.

I've been doing this activity with my classes for a little while and I've found it really develops understanding and paraphrasing.

What I do is play the first few lines of a song. Get students to write what they hear. Listen again, compare what they have to make sure it's ok then I ask them to translate what they have both literally and adapting whatever idiomatic language might be contained within the first 4 lines of the song.

After they've translated it I ask them to translate it back into English but they have to avoid using the same vocabulary, as far as possible, to the original.

I then go through the entire song, using some kind of gap fill. when we're done with that I translate another section of the song. then back again. In doing this it makes the students think about exactly what message the singer is trying to convey.

The most recent two songs I've done this with are. Ed Sheeran's hit Thinking Out Loud and the Kooks early naughties classic Naive and of course my favourite all time song Everlong by the Foo Fighters.

You can do it with any song you desire and there are a plethora of options out there on the internet if you're looking for ready made materials. If you look in my materials folder at the top you'll find two or three songs already done. Help yourself.

England and səm pɪˈkjuːlɪə sawndɪŋ tawnz

As an Englishman I'm always tickled pink by the attempts at non-English folk's attempts at pronouncing some of the England's more peculiar City, Town and Village names. That said a huge slice of humble pie had to be eaten back in the summer when I visited a town called Snettisham. I fell foul of a counter intuitively pronounced town and for that very reason I set about putting together a class. To help those who come to our land and hope to speak free from the embarrassment of Lei-ces-ter Square.



The way I've set it is is with a powerpoint introduction of the 5 selected locations around England with a few pictures and facts about each place. At this stage I don't mention how to pronounce the towns. and get students to read each slide. (You can find all the materials here. The powerpoint and worksheet are both titled"Town names pron")

The next step is to put students into pairs (using the red and yellow section of the tables) or groups of three (in this case use the blue section of the table) and give each member of the group one of the worksheets here.

It then becomes an information swap by them using their partner. Next they work together to complete their tables and/or the one on the white board, on which you can have a different information gap task.





When students have completed the task get them to look through each of the words ad spell the the individual sounds to help demonstrate the various different ways sounds can be spelled in our wonderfully prepossessing language.

This activity always works better when student shave a basic knowledge of phonemic script but can be done as a cryptography class without any knowledge and a simple copy of the chart.



I trust you'll have a giggle with this and perhaps learn something new yourself.

'til the next time.

If you enjoyed this why not follow me on twitter @EFLuencyfella
H

Using Complex Grammatical Structures - Grab Activity

Whilst working with my proficiency students I’ve found they have an amazing level of English but often struggle when it comes to incorporating the complex grammatical structures they need to use in the speaking exam into their language.  I’ve created this grab activity to make sure they use them.

After printing and laminating the cards I get students to take a hand full of them and base their spoken activity around using as many as they can. I have a similar sheet to encourage the use of discourse markers. 

for more activities keep and eye on twitter for the@EFLuencyfella

If I were..	….of huge importance
It would/n’t be	in all likelihood
Seldom does one..	It’s vital that we
Not for a moment	I should hope
Not ‘til I…. did I	What makes me _____ is…
Hardly had we	Whoever
Here’s your	Whenever
I’ve been told	Only when I
Not only…. But….. also	If it hadn’t been
Never have	Should you want to
No sooner	Were it not for
Under no circumstances	Only when I
At no time	Not only
Not since

Flag of The Week

Just a quick one today. As I'm just off out of the classroom.
something I really love about teaching younger levels is the opportunity to add in a few bits and pieces of trivia with the English they use.
As you may or may not know, I love flags and capital cities. For that very reason I like to introduce a new flag of the week each week to my kids. I used to go with the traditional, more common flags but recently I found students to be wildly more interested in flags that had something a little different. Countries that weren't your run of the mill classroom countries.

The PowerPoint just here (or notebook, here, depending on your technology) contain ten completed flags. Below the top ten are my next 14 weeks work. I'll be updating them on a regular basis.  I'd advise downloading them, not just going straight from Google. They lose a lot of their functions.. They're simple called flag of the week. Like all my materials you can get them from the links at the top of the page too.

I've found it to be a great way to get students to see there is a world outside their country and outside the countries portrayed on the western news week-in, week-out.

I tend to use it at the start of my classes when I am going through various routines, such as the weather. Each class a different student gets a different flag. At the end of the class I recap with a quick quiz then the following class the student repeats what they can remember.

Well, it's Friday and time for me to log off.

I hope you all enjoy what the weekend has in store for you.

'til the next time.

H

@EFLuencyfella

PET writing Part 3. The Fun Bit. Part 2

After the not quite borefest but let's be honest not exactly enthralling, yet incredibly useful, opening to this class I provided you with on Tuesday. Today's blog is going to get your students to practice what they've learnt and get it to stick in their memory.

So after you've made Frankenstein's letter and the students have the options available to them to create their own master piece I present the students a chance to really play with it.

Step 1:   Do a secret Santa style phone number swap.

Step 2: Students to find out who their partner is by sending a hello message on whatsapp. From now on the class must remain silent. Only speaking through whatsapp.

Step 3: Get students to decide who will be person a and who will be person b.

Step 4: Person A sends the greeting to person B.

Step 5: Student B sends the first line of the informal letter to student B. In doing so they should use as much of the text talk vocabulary and as many emojis as they can. eg:

  S'up? Thnx 4 the letter,             I was over the  when it arrived.

Step 6: Partner B must then complete the first paragraph with the reason for not writing sooner.

I'm sry I didn't  b4, I've been really busy with work.


Step 7: Students to work their way through the letter until they've finished their correspondence. When they're done I get them to sit together and decode their messages onto the PET writing part 3 template. 

Step 8:  Finally, ask your students to take their completed templates and write their final, perfect, informal letter.

NB for the final step I like to get my students to write up their final letter on a piece of paper wrapped in tin foil. It is that extra bit of writing outside the box which will really stick what they have done in class in their memories. It will also have them writing the final letter once more and not even complaining about it because it's going to look shiny and lovely. They can then be put up around the classroom of a constant reminder of what a great teacher you are and how much fun they have in your classes.

Well, I really hope your students enjoy this class. I've found it's really worked well with mine and it makes them really happy to leave the books aside for a day and focus on developing their writing in a slightly different way.


FULL LESSON PRINTABLE LESSON PLAN HERE

'til next time

PET Writing Part 3. Informal Letter. Part 1.

What's the big deal with mobile phones? Why is there so much debate about having them in class or not? I personally have no idea. I love it when my students use their phone in class. To me it is a huge waste of a glorious tool if they don't use it. Getting a teenager to actively want to use their phone to study English is a huge step towards autonomous learning.

So there are hundreds of activities you can do with mobile phones. This lesson plan was designed around using their mobile devices to write the informal letter in part 2 of the PET exam. It's a full 60-80 minute class depending on numbers. It may seem complex at first but it's a simple 6 step class that will leave your students prepared to write in the correct tone, using paragraphs and most of all, remembering some important vocabulary and structures to help them when they reach the exam.  Most importantly though it will stick in their minds long beyond the exam. While I realize this doesn't leave a huge amount of room for flair, but the sad fact is when trying to pass the PET exam formulaic writing tends to win out. This letter will provide students with a formula with a dash of added flair.

In this first blog I'm going to describe Part 1, 2 and 3 which can be used apart as a separate activity. In Thursdays blog I'll be describing how it can used in conjunction with the other parts and lead students to becoming more engaged and end up drilling exactly what they need to the exam.

After you've warmed you class up the first step to this class is getting them in the writing zone. always start with a few questions about PET writing part 3.

1) Text talk warmer <- - -  click there(10-15 minutes max)
Cut up the "text talk" and get students to work in pairs matching it to the correct description. I give one students the cut up "test talk" and the other the board of answers and try and get them to figure out the answers without looking.

CUl8er = see you later
S'up = what's up
GTG = I've got to go
NE1 = Anyone

and so on. Each pair will then keep hold of their completed, checked work.

After you've warmed you class up the first step to this class is getting them in the writing zone. always start with a few questions about PET writing part 3. 

2) Ask students to describe part 3. Elicit which part is easier, the letter or the story.
The letter.

3) Next go on to ask students the basic conventions to a letter and elicit a few suggestions for each part. This will usually take about 20 - 25 minutes. It's the whole skeleton to the class

i) The Greeting

• Hey Jane, (COMMA)
• Hi Jane, (COMMA)
• Hello Jane, (COMMA)

Students often forget to use a comma.

ii) Opening Paragraph

Elicit that this paragraph is used to ask a)how your friend is, b)thank them for their letter and, words permitting c) apologise for not responding sooner. This paragraph doesn't depend on the question. This paragraph never needs to change. This is a chance to use a number of different tenses and an idiom or two. Elicit ideas for each sentence.

Here are some from my PET class.

a)

•  How're you? (stress the fact contractions are a part of informal writing)
• How's life? 
• What's up?
• What's happening?
• What's new?
• How have you been lately?

b)

• Thanks for your letter. I was very happy to read it.
• Cheers for your letter, I was over the moon when it arrived.
• Thank you so much for your letter, it was great to hear from you after so long.

c)

• I'm sorry I haven't written for so long, I've been really busy. 
• I'm sorry it's taken me so long to reply. I've been up to my eyeballs in revision.
• Sorry I didn't write back sooner. I am very busy with work at the moment.

iii) Paragraph two

Elicit that this paragraph is used to answer the question asked by your "English speaking penfriend" this is when I give my students the question.

This is part of a letter you receive from your penfriend James.

In your next letter, please tell me about the music you like. 
What’s your favourite kind of music? Do you play an instrument?

I now get students to fill in the gaps of a model paragraph two. I stress to them that being honest is in no way important and grammatically correct lies are perfectly sufficient.

You asked me what_____________________________.  I'm really keen on___________ because it's really_____________ not to mention _________________. You also asked me if I_____________________. Well, I've been_______the _________ for _______ years now. It isn't _______but I love it. 

iv) Paragraph 3

Elicit that this is a sign off and is again unrelated to the questions. In this paragraph you should a) say you hope you've answered your friends questions, b) say you have to go and give a reason for leaving and c) ask your friend to write back/suggest meeting

a)

• I hope I've answered you questions.
• Did my answers help you?

b) 

• I've got to go now. I've got an exam tomorrow and these books won't study them selves. 
• I have to go.The bus is arrives in 2 minutes and I'll be late for school if I miss it. 
• Sorry, I have to stop writing now. My mum needs a hand with the shopping. 

c) 

• Write back soon.
• Maybe we could meet up this weekend.
• We should meet up soon, it's been too long. 
• Don't be a stranger. 

v) The sign off

Emphasise that without this part they will lose points for organisation and it's as important as the greeting. 

• Love
• Lots of love
• All my love
• See you later 

                             NAME

In the end they'll have a sample letter that looks something like this. 

Hey James,

              What’s up? Cheers for your letter, I was over the moon when it arrived. I'm sorry it's taken me ages to reply. I've been up to my eyeballs in revision.

You asked me what music I like.  I'm keen on rock music because it's really exciting and fun to listen to. You also asked me if I play an instrument. Well, I've been playing the triangle for seven years. It isn't very glamorous but I love it. 

I hope I've answered you questions. I have to go. The bus arrives soon and I'll be late if I miss it. We should meet up soon.

See you later

Harry

 In Thursday's blog I'll go on to explain the more interactive and exciting part of the class. The endlessly engaging aspect of having students take out their phones and use them in class.