Work Sneak with a twist

Those of you who have read my blog in the past may remember the game Shoehorn. Whereby students have to take words from the previous class or from the target vocabulary provided by the coursebook; and try to shoehorn them naturally into a somewhat contrived conversation. The results of this are often rather amusing, particularly with higher levels.

I've recently changed jobs and in our meeting we were sharing ideas.  A colleague of mine reminded me of the idea of rather than forcing the words into a conversation perhaps letting them do it a little more naturally and slightly less contrived. Students are provided with 5-10 words (from previous classes and from coursebooks) and they have to try and get them all into their speaking throughout the class. This idea jumped out at me and I decided to use it right away.

I'm not sure whether you stay on top of new vocab that occurs in class, but I do. I always write it on the side of the whiteboard, review it at the end of class and get a students to act as the scribe and write all the new vocabulary on very simple grids(which can be found here), which I later cut up and put into a box for each of my different classes. At the start of my next class I simply placed the words from the previous class on my students desks and asked them to keep their words a secret but to try and get them into the speaking throughout the class.

It went down a treat and at the end of the class students could announce how many words they'd used and the meaning of said words. The next class the pile of words grew and the task of getting the words into their natural speech became a little more difficult.

I hope your students, of all ages and abilities, enjoy it as much as mine did.

Til the next time

@ELFuencyfacilitator

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.

What's that sound, A step further.

good morrow one and all,
I've been talking a lot recently about the importance of pronunciation in class. I mentiod a few posts back about using the phonemic chart in the classroom as a useful tool but by no means as the be all and end all of how to help`pron.  I've been teaching my students, bit by bit, what each sound looks and sounds like. I mentioned my game What's that Sound a wee while ago. Not only does it help pron but it also throws up a whole bunch of new vocab the students would never have come across without a wee push. Well, it's been a few weeks since then and I have a whole bunch more sides that I've used in class. They have been added to the materials link just over there   --------------->                                                                                  Have fun with phonemes and don't thrust them upon your students or you'll just get a bunch of scared looking faces staring up at the utter guff you've projected in front of them.

I always follow the sounds, especially the minimal pairs, with a game or an activity in the next class to rehash them to the students. Minimal Phone numbers is always a favourite. I'll repost that blog next time so as to give you all a quick reminder and as a way of seeing some updated material.

'til next time

Just around the corner

With ACEIA just days away I've uploaded all of the content from my talk onto the link to the right (just a few materials.)
The talk has evolved ever so slightly so for all y'all who saw it at TEFL del Sur, there are some new treats and one or two changes and additions.

If you're at the conference this weekend. I assure you it's worth staying until the end. I'll treat you to a spectacular somewhat akin to a live Muse concert. Ok, that might be a bit of a lie, there will be no fireworks aside the metophorical ones flying around the room.

Using Sporcle to Build Vocabulary

My colleagues and I at The English House are all frequent  users of http://www.sporcle.com/. It's a quiz website with quizzes for just about everything you can imagine. I'm just going to wizz through a couple of them today and ideas on how to use them in your class. I normally use them as a warmer or cooler. Not to mention as a filler.
As I said before there are a plethora of quizzes on just about every subject under the sun. What's great is there are a whole bunch of vocabulary quizzes which can be really great in the classroom. I've used lots of general knowledge quizzes as a reward for good work on a number of occasions too.

The first pair of games I'm going to cover both involve the use of common suffixes. The Spanish favourite      -ation and the forever common -ish. The links are below.
http://www.sporcle.com/games/naqwerty3/sporclation-nation

http://www.sporcle.com/games/TheLoir/word-ends-in-ish

What I like to do with the words first is put them on the board and give the students 5 minutes to look up the meaning of any they don't understand on their phones.


Next I set the clock running and see how many they get right. I only take their first answer though to stop the multiple guessers I almost always have. The results were really surprising the last time I did these games and four of the words actually came up in the very same class.

That's about it for now. I'll be back tomorrow with more sporcleicious ideas. Tomorrow's is a fantastic way to practice reported speech. A great idea my colleague Neil gave me just yesterday.

I'll catch you on the morrow.

H