Updated Christmas-ish Quiz

It's that time of year again where students are losing their desire, teachers are losing their minds and classes are becoming a little more difficult by the day. Students begging for films and games while teachers are resolutely fighting on in the vain hope that their students might just learn a thing or two over the last few classes before the long awaited Christmas break.
I made this powerpoint 3 years ago and I've updated it bit by bit every year and it's getting to the time where it'll be trotted out yet again.
This link will take you to the powerpoint and this one will provide you with the answers.

So if you want your students to do a little bit of exam practice, a little bit of learning of trival facts and have an awful lot of fun just go ahead and download these materials. Trust me, it'll be a nice easy and enjoyable class.

Remember to give me a follow on twitter if you like the ideas @EFLuencyfella

Til the next time

Getting to know your students a little better.

How do you get students to pay attention in class? Well, preparation is one of the big things. If you're ready for a class and don't just go in and throw a class together ad hoc it'll generally run an awful lot smoother.
Other than that making the class relevant to the students will always spark interest. Small things like writing their names in examples and mentioning their names out of context tend to help.
That's why I devised this questionnaire. I wanted to know more about my students to enable me to tailor the classes to their needs and, perhaps more importantly, their interests.

A fully editable version is available here Questionnaire and my sample answers here my answers. I've updated this blog with a sample of one of my students answers. It restored my faith in humanity just check out Iñigo's answers

Print it off, hand it out and obviously change your answers so they're appropriate to your classes level. If you're feeling imaginative why not try in your student's mother tongue.

Now I've got my students answers I can change parts of my classes to make sure at least one person in the class is giving me their undivided attention or even getting others to give their attention to them.

If you were an animal, what animal would you be? Why?

What is the best book you’ve ever read? Tell me a something about it.

What is your biggest strength when using English? Speaking, listening etc

What area do you need/want to work on the most?

If you could have been alive in any place during any era, when and where would it have been?

What do you do to improve your English outside of the classroom?

What is your favourite English word? Why?

What do you know more about than most people?

What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?

In an Ideal class what would you learn?

Who would win in a fight between Spiderman and Batman? Why?

What is your superpower? What real superpower would you change it for?

Shoehorn ˈʃuːhɔːn

This is an activity I use with students of all ages and a wide range of abilities.
I saw it on Jimmy Fallon and thought it would be a marvelous idea for the ESL classroom.
Shoehorn is a game whereby you have to make words you have in your hand somehow fit into the conversation you are having. Each time you use one you get rid of it. when you're done with your cards you win.
As the levels advance the difficulty of the vocabulary increases. Each word does also have to fit the patterne of the conversation. I had one student who got would just say "and then I saw a........"


I tend to use vocabulary that cropped up in previous classes to see if they have retained the new vocab and also to recycle it. I have also been using words from the three readings I have recently posted.

You can use any words. I like to make a nice big mix.

For example partner A might have their six words to the tune of:

Elephant  /'elɪfənt/
Breeze   /'bri:z/
Reputation /ˌrepjʊ'teɪʃən/
Umbrella /ʌm'brelə/
Slow-dance /'sləʊ'dɑ:ns/
Reserved /rɪ'zɜ:vd/

While B would have the words below printed and individually cut:

Operation
Desktop
Unreliable
Dilly-dally
Employable
Back-stabber

I give each student their cards face down. I then get another student to elect what the topic of the conversation is. Then the students go at it for a minute or until their cards have run out.
I also put another student in with the pairs to ensure there is no improper use of the words and to settle any disputes. Then the winning student takes on the judge with a new set of words. The topic of conversation changes and we continue. The students level dictates to me as to whether I should use phonemes instead of words. In all but one of my classes classic script wins out.

If you don't want to prepare, cut, think about and laminate your words then just get your students to write down six words at the end of the class. Then use this activity as a warmer. I've found my students have become much more spontanious and they now really look forward to playing this game.

A mob with a bad rep. Clippings and their uses

Good afternoon one and all,

I trust this finds you well. As I mentioned previously, my recent Advanced and Proficiency classes have been based, almost entirely, around the book, "The Story of English in 100 Words." By David Crystal.  I've also previously mentioned my desire to get students reading in English. Now it seems in class they do an awful lot of reading, of course they do, otherwise they wouldn't be able to get through the exams that are constantly thrown in front of them. But while they're reading do they actually digest any of it? Do they process any of the information? Do they learn from it? The resounding answer I get from other educators is No. Students smash off the part of the exam they have and then completely forget about it. I can say with some degree of certainty that if you asked your students to tell you something from within an exam part from a day or two previous, they wouldn't have a clue. What's most upsetting for me is the fact that one or two of the Cambridge exams have some mildly interesting content and students could learn from them. There is also a huge amount of new vocabulary that they could take in.

It's for these reasons that I have tried to get my students into memes to peak their interest. Along with this I've started to bring non-exam related readings into class. Things that I enjoy and can share my passion with my students. I have also started a new project with students to bring in articles about the things they enjoy doing. The endless reems of Real Madrid propaganda is beginning to get somewhat tiresome though.

As you may have seen with yesterday's post I talked about Americanisms especially related to Harry Potter. My students really got into this, used the worksheet on the back and actually digested some of the information. Of course, some of the boys didn't really care much for the reading and went straight for the worksheet, others just didn't do it. But a good 50% of the class, took interst, paid attention to what they read and have now improved on what they already knew. Much like with the words Debt and Money from Mr Crystal's delightful book. Some of the students have really started to realise that paying attention to a words etymology can really broarden their vocabulary. And let's be honest at Advanced and Prof level expanding on vocab and seeing the world or new collocations out there is exactly where we need to be taking our students.

With that in mind I took another word from the book, Rep. This time, rather than creating a worksheet, I gave the full text to my students and let them read it through. Next I gave them a cut version of the text with UOE parts 1 and 2 incorporated into the text and asked them to give it a try. Those who care about what they read did very well, those who don't, not so well.

The worksheet is attached at this link Rep sheet. With the original here Look for Words. Something else I've been doing for a while my students is to get them to read their text and make their own exam parts for their classmates or to do each others. Again it shows students that they really do need to read what is in front of them and they can learn an awful lot more that way. It also allows them to own their work and take the class themselves. This step towards autonomus learning can end up being a giant leap.

Next class go back and check what they've learnt and how much of it  has stuck.

'til next time

Americanisms and Harry Potter.

Following on from yesterday's blog where I spoke about David Crystal's book "The Story of English in 100 Words." I've posted the first part of my three classes. It's not exactly in the order I said yesterday but it is part 1.
As you may or may not have guessed it is about the difference between British and American English and how it can change meaning, cause confusion or simply enhance your language.

The worksheet here in Materials  called Harry Potter goes with the PDF here:Words 

As an intro to the class I like to ask which of my students watch TV in English. It is usually quite a high percentage of the class. I then ask if they have problems when it comes to deciphering  between some vocab they come across in there televisual travels and those presented to them in class.
The invariable answer is no.

This isn't because they haven't come across the subtle differences between British English and her transatlantic counterpart. They simply haven't noticed them on.

The next step is to elicit any Americanisms (or Britishisms depending on where you're teaching.)

My students usually come up with five or six. Pants being the most obvious and, of course, amusing to a group of boys.


Then I simply allow my more advanced students 10 minutes to read over the text.

I then repose the question as to whether they have in the past encountered any of the Americanisms in the text and if they feel changes in spelling from across the pond have enhanced understanding or made it harder. In this case the resounding response is in favour or should I say favor of the simpler American spelling.

Next I get my students to do some research into the differences between some of the words to find if there is room for confusion within these two very different dialects.  If they come across the word Fanny they do invariably fall about laughing.

When the vocab has been covered and the understanding has been verified I give the students the worksheet attached.

Then they return to class the following day we debate our answers to task 3 and see how many Americanisms we can compile.

Until the next time when I'll be repping some clippings.

H

The Story of English in 100 words. By David Crystal

Something I've always found fascinating is seeing how passionate people can get about almost anything. What fascinates me further is listening to those people speak at great length with such gusto about their passion. I once listened intently to a good friend of mine speak for two hours about the difference between coffee grinders. Now, I love coffee as much as the next man but I never thought I could be so captivated by the subject of grinders. Obviously, it isn't simply the intensity with which someone imparts their knowledge. Of course, said person has to do so with at least a modicum of charisma.

It is for that very reason that I try to impart as many as my intersts as pòssible on my students. It does, unquestionably, make a difference if your students are also intersted in the subject matter. Such as with my recent football class. But that is not in any way vital. If you can show students why you find things intersting they will often take up a liking themselves. I do, of course, also like to give my students the chance to go about showing their passion in class and providing a platform for them to share their ideas and zeal for whichever subject they find enticing.

Since becoming an English teacher my love for the language has only become deeper. Whilst some areas of grammar are really rather captivating, it's the etymology of the language I find truly alluring. The most recent books I've read have all been wordbooks and from one of those I've found some wonderufl material for my higher level classes and I've also peaked their interest greatly. It has become hugely apparent that when students know something about a word they find it an awful lot easier to use it in context. Added to that there are always otherwords that come connected. The next three classes I'm going to write about are all from David Crystal's book "The Story of English in 100 Words."

The first word I used for my classes was debt. It explained how and why many silent letters appeared in our langauge. My students found this extremely interesting as, especally to a Spanish learner, silent letters can often be a real pain in the derriere.

The next word I spoke about was dilly-dally, which talks about why we repeat sounds in words and provides a great number of examples. Examples which my students knew existed but now have a nice compartment to put them in and use them again at will.

Word three was Rep. It talks about how words are reduced and then reused in their shorter forms.

The final word I have used in class, so far, is Americanism. As a great number of my students have been to the states and often complain of the differences I like to flash up some examples and then use Prof Crystal's example of Harry Potter to show just how much the language can change by simply crossing the atlantic.

I'm going to get to putting these classes up on the web over the next week or so. I have a few materials to adapt. Most of the classes involve students reading extracts of the book but I have turned a few sections into "exam style" activities. When I get to a scanner I'll get them up

If you are a teacher, particularly of higher levels, I would strongly advise getting your hands on a copy of this wonderful book.

Memes and Procrastination Poo Pages

Trying to spark an interest in reading can sometimes be somewhat difficult when it comes to language learners. What I've started to do with my teenagers is get them to read little by little. With things like Memes. They may only be 10 or 15 words but each one tends to lead to even more reading.  It really isn't a great deal but it builds up.

I've recently introduced some of my classes to what I call procrastination or poo pages. Those black holes you sometimes get stuck in when all you really want to do is be productive. You know the type of pages you read while you're sitting on the toilet. Perhaps not the image you want. It is however a great way of getting your students to use English when they aren't even thinking about it.
I've showed my classes pages like:
themetapicture.com/
lamebook.com/
bored.com/
passiveaggressivenotes.com/
uhpinions.com/
textsfromlastnight.com/
buzzfeed.com

Bear in mind some of these have fairly choice language so choose carefully as to which ones you want to show your students.

Added to that I get students to find funny memes and as much with as much word play in them as possible to bring to class and present themselves. I've added a bunch of these to a powerpoint. I've notieced a huge interest in this and students try and outdo each other by bringing more and more complex jokes to class. Or simply something really cute. they are always in English. which can only be a good thing.
Just here:
Materials- look for memes

Right then, that's it for today. I do hope this brings a smile and sparks that interest in reading. Even if it is only 50 words a day.

'til the next time.

H

PET Speaking. And I'm not on about your talking puppy.

Those of you who have read, spoken to or listened to me before will know I have a very slight aversion to exams. My feelings on the matter are such that the thought of them often gets me a wee bit agitated. This is mostly because over the past 8 and a half years I've found motivations changing in students and going somewhat from a want to learn to a have to learn. With that it has led many teachers down a road free of imagination and joy. It has turned a huge number of classrooms into exam factories and the fun behind learning has, in many cases, almost disappeared.

This is very much the case in large schools with large classes where teaching is becoming closer to impossible by the day. Sadly, however, it is also the case in a number of classrooms in the private sector as well. Academy classrooms are one of the few places true teaching can still take place. It's for that reason I dedicate a huge amout of my spare time trying to think up ways of making exam practice a little more fun. If you look back over my previous posts you'll see fun is at the heart of my teaching.
This post, however, isn't all that much fun. It's just a quick half an hour class with some very basic hints, tips and useful language to use in the PET exam. I did this presentation at my current school and the rapid advance in the students speaking, well those that paid attention, is clear to see.

I simpy put up the powerpoint. Elicit as many answers as possible. Provide the language and see how the students go. The part two grab activity is a particularly useful one. Just print out the vocab and get students to cut out each phrase. When that's done make them use each phrase as they go through a speaking activity. The pair who use the most win the game. It's a slightly more fun way of drilling.
I've done the same with describing a picture. Each student gets the list of phrases to use and then has to adapt them to their picture.

So as I said a nice quick easy refresher for students getting ready to do the exam. I'd try and do this early on in their learning so they have time to try it a number of times before going into the exam. Sadly, this isn't the best way of learning a language. It is alas a good way to pass an exam.

I always find a smile and some energy gives my students a huge boost as well. especially with drier subjects like this one. Give it a shot.

Just follow this link below and it'll lead you right to the powerpoint and various other delights.
PET Speaking hints and tips

Thanks for reading. I hope it helps your students as much as it's helped mine.

Movies and Emoticons. What more could a teenager ask for?

Whilst trawling the endless breadths and depths of this here internet for something a little more exciting in class, I came across this little gem.
As we all know teenagers, well everyone really, are utterly obsessed with the wonders of mobile technology. I like to harness this excitement rather than crush it at first sight like many educators nowadays.
Before I had happened upon the soon to be revealed super wonder site. I was sitting in my office trying to make emoticon clues to various riddles and such. I then hit upon the idea of doing moive titles. At that very moment. It dawned on me. "someone will have done this... for sure." Within about four strokes of the keyboard I found myself immerced in a glorious array of crypitic movie titles. I printed them out and shoved them in front of my class of 32, 15 year old boys. I paird them up and told them to figure them out in English. the quickest one to get 30 correct could then take out their phone and start creating some titles for themselves.
Just have a look here. a huge thanks goes out to Memolition.com for this one. It has been an absolute life saver and the students just can't get enough of it.

 Next stop book titles. Or is that a little bit too optimistic.

Here's the link
50 film titles

Just another commentator

Whilst teaching in an all boys school I realised I was missing something. How could I get these boys to really go crazy with their English. How could I show them that English really is a beautiful language full of nuance and some unforgettable adjectives.

This idea came to me whilst watching England Vs Spain in a recent Friendly international.Most boys like football, most boys like watching goals. As do a number of girls as well. Let's not be sexist about this.

The Spanish right-back, Mario Gaspar, Scored an absolute scorcher of a scissor kick from the edge of Englad's 18 yard box and all the commentator could come up with was the same as every other goal ever scored in the history of Spanish football the extended Gooooooool. No matter the beauty of the goal or the glory of the build up to it the end result is always met with the same sence of enthusiasm. While every goal counts equally the language used to describe them should, in my humble opinion, reflect the beauty of the goal.

If you look in the links to the right (a few materials) you'll find a vocabulary list of football words. Materials

I've chosen six examples

Maradona. Best goal ever?
Zlatan Vs England
Iniesta Vs The Netherlands
Sir Geoff Hurst Vs Wast Germany
Bergkamp vs Newcastle
King Thierry Vs Man utd

There are thousands of examples you can use. I used these as they were a variety of different styles  of goals and I could watch each one about a million times. Feel free to go crazy and select your own.

I show the students the goals and play them the commentry three or four times. I let them take notes of useful phrases, I give them the vocabulary list attached then I let them work together in pairs to create the perfect commentry.

If you have a class where students aren't interested in football. Perhaps set the final task as a project at home and let other students provide commentry. You can then record them over the video footage and see which pair come up with the best NEW commentary.

This has been a huge hit in recent classes. I hope it works the same for you too.

Enjoy.

@EFLuencyfella

Word Association

A nice quick filler or warmer to get the class thinking on their feet is just a quick round or two of word associations. There doesn't need to be any right or wrong answer.
There are a few ways of starting this activity. you can put a word on the board. flash a picture or

simply get your students to say any word and the next person in line has to say a word related to the previous one, without thinking. I always set a 2 second time limit. They just have to shout out the first word that comes into their head. You can do this around the class or get students to throw a ball around to keep them on their toes. It can take the class on a weird and wonderful journey. You can also learn an awful lot about the workings of your students minds.

Til the next time

Writing outside the box

Yes, write on that. Why? Because you can

While most of my posts are aimed at speaking and trying to get your students to open up as much as possible.
Today  I want to go down the writing road. I'm not going to try and pretend these ideas are mine, they're mostly from the weird wonderful mind the ELTgenius that is Chris Roland.http://chrisroland.net/ I've used them this year and they've really worked well on getting kids interested in writing and making sure teens actually give a damn about what comes from their pen.

Much like my recent potato post for speaking I've found writing on things that aren't there to be written on can really spark students' interest.

It's a fairly simple four step plan I implement each time I use something strange.
 I go through how to do said writing. Be it kids, exam students or adults.
 I do a quick plan and/or in class to make sure the students are all on the right track.
 Next I set the writing as homework and tell them in the next class, after correcting their work, they'll be writning their letter, essay, review on something a bit different, which is then put up around the room.

Some of the things I've used this year have been, tin foil/aluminium paper wrapped around an A4 sheet of paper, balloons, paper plates, napkins and latex gloves. Before I give any of the students their blank canvas I get the student to write me a letter of request to ask to use the object and to promise not to abuse it. They then in turn have to take great care and attention so as not to rip, burst or destroy their work. If they do, It's time to start again.

What this has done is made my students really focus on their work. They also end up having an almost perfect example of whatever piece of writing you have set and it sticks in their mind because it was somewhat out of the ordinary.

Making writing fun is the key to success and also giving students something fun to write on will really encourage them to do their homework. Can you imagine being in a class where all of your classmates are blowing up balloons and you'e stuck there doing the homework you "left at home."

Give it a shot. It realy livened up my writing session.

The Mind Boggles as does the game

Have you ever played boggle? It's a wonderful game to use in the classroom. you have a set of 16 dice each with 6 different letters on them. you shake them up and have to find as many words as you can. In the traditional games the letters have to be conected. In the classroom version I just get students to find as many words as they can. Or for the longest word they can conjure up with the letters on show in the time limit.  You can buy your own game then you can use it at home on those long cold rainy winter's nights or you can simply use an online generator.  I find the real game
engages my students more as they can be the ones in control of what letters come out and if there are 6 e's then they can blame Pablo and not just say it's impossible.
After the students have made a list or two I then ask them to use those words as the basis to a story or a dialogue between their teams. 
I tried this with my elementary adult class at the start of the year and saw they were porducing short sentences which often made very little sense. By the end of the year the students were trotting out bizarre and unique and often fairly racey stories. This game can really add to the studentes spontinaaity and helps them think on their feet about what to write. You can get students to keep a boggle folder and play the game a few times throughout the year. Your students will be able to see how much they've improved by the end of the year. Not only at writing but also at spotting hidden words within the game.

I trust you'll have as much fun with it as I have. Probably the best investment in a board game since buying Trivial Pursuit.

ELI Conference

Thanks to those of you who came to my talks today. As I said all of the materials are on the tab just over there -------------> plus a whole bunch more I've just uploaded the short version of the talk from today. Feel free to take it, use it, abuse it, change it or ignore it.
I hope you found it useful today and your classes enjoy the activities as much as mine.

Thanks again

H

Ken Lee (ta liba diba dow choo)

Whether you like it or not both talent shows and pop music exist. Some of you may feel the marriage of the two can lead to feeling violently ill, others, myself included, may find themselves strangely drawn what can only be described as TV smack. You know it's wrong. Every fibre of your being tells you that you are fueling an evil empire and you really shouldn't be enjoying it , but something is a bizarre Macarb sence that eveything in front of you is actually really really good when you know it's really really bad.

With that in mind I recently saw a classic clip from Bulgaria's top talent show, a take on Pop Idol. We all know the best part of these shows are when the telentless individuals get on the screen and  it has the car crash effect where you just can't look away. After seeing this wonderful clip I decided I wanted the world to see it. At least those who hadn't already seen it on Youtube. Alas, being but an ESL teacher my world is confiened to the four walls of my cell classroom. Like with all videos i nclass I am loathed to play them without a decent language pay off. So I created a lesson. Taking students through the meaning of diva to the hilarious video. I'm just going to bullet point the lesson and you can find the powerpoint and hand out over in the materials section.

• Get students to list as many artists and songs as they can for the first slide of the presentation which contains 5 different genres of music. 
• Next get them to talk about the common traits between the five women on the next page. Elict that they are Divas and get them to suggest a few more. My personal favourite from a 12 year old student was Kanye West. 
• Then show them the definition and see if that coaxes out a couple more.
• The next part is getting your students to do a gap fill of one of the world's most popular diva's most famous single. Mariah Carey's cover of Without you.
• I then like to get students to think about why certain people become famous across the globe and eventually elicit the main reason is that they can sing in more than one language thus enhancing their global appeal.
• Then comes the clincher. I put up the video of  Ken Lee. Both the link for the song and the funny clip are below. 
• Sit back and watch your students fall about laughing whilst learning the valuable lesson the actually learning what your singing can prevent international ridicule.

All told the activity usually takes between twenty and twenty five minutes and is great for one of those post exam days.

I hope you and your students enjoy it as much as mine did.

Mariah Carey - Without You

Ken Lee

Til next time