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. 

Music and what it means to you.

There are hundreds of thousands of different ways to improve a second language whilst you're outside the classroom. In my opinion the easiest and most fun is by listening to music that you like and finding new music that makes you feel something.

The idea that a song holds significance can really add an impetus to learn and also a serious connection to the vocabulary, grammar and ideas presented in the song.

What I like to do is start my students off with some brief information about my favourite song and then move on to a slightly different gap fill to what is traditional.  

After you've bared your soul to the class and worked through the song using, clarifying any issues with the vocabulary and getting students to use it throughout the class, you'll find students are happy to bare their own souls within the music they love. Since introducing my song to my classes I tend to get an overwhelming response from my students wanting to create their own materials. Not only to show you how they feel about the song but to also get a better understanding of what they're listening to. I've found with a great deal of my classes they're now paying significantly more attention to the songs they listen to.

My favourite song in Everlong by the Foo Fighters. I've attached the worksheet here: Everlong

I hope it works as well for you as it has for me.

'til the next time.

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

The Fix is in. Of the pre and suf variety

I'm not sure how many of your students love lists, but I have a whole bunch of them who absolutely love lists. I think it might have something to do with the Spanish exam mentality that makes them enjoy pouring over list after list of phrasal verbs and dependent propositions. for some of them, it obviously works.
It's for that reason that I decided to spend far too many hours of my time making this list of prefixes and suffixes. It's just a list. No extra exercises, just a big long list.
The downloadable worksheet is available from the link right up there ^ it's called Just a few materials Affixation.

Anyway, there is a little taster below but for the whole docume t you'll need to click above.

Verb-forming Suffixes	Meanings	Examples
-ate / -en / -fy -ise / -ize	make / become render (as) / treat (as)	Activate / Shorten / Purify Minimize / Crystallize / Idolize

Adverb-forming Suffixes	Meanings	Examples
-ally / -ly	in the manner of / with respect to	Emphatically / Musically / Nicely / Alternately

Forget resolutions let's just think of some simple guidelines

Happy New Year everyone. I trust you've had a delightful festive period and you're nice and refresed for the year ahead.

As I'm sure all of you are aware the typical thing for people to do at this time of year is get students to think about and work with new years resolutions. Don't get me wrong,  I really like my classes working on the classic NY resolution activities like list building activities and guessing the most common new years resolutions. It's just I've been doing it for 8 years now I and I fancied doing something a wee bit different.

What I'm doing at the moment is something a little different. I was inspired on one of my many visits to themetapicture.com. What I'm doing with my classes is just going through some simple life hacks and some general wise words. If you look below you'll see thirty different tips. Not only on how to simply get through the day, but also how you can make yours and other pepole's days a little easier. Not to mention occasionally just a shade more fun.

My Top 30 Tips for Life

1. There are plenty of ways of getting into the pool. The stairs is not one of them.

2. If a street performer makes you stop, you owe them money.

3. When entrusted with a secret keep it.

4. When loading the diswasher always segregate your cutlery. It will make emptying it a lot easier.

5. Smile at strangers.

6. You only get one chance to notice a new haircut.

7. Never lie to your doctor.

8. Take a break from yout electronic devices, at least once a year.

9. It's never too late for an apology.

10. Give credit. Take blame.

11. Stand up to bullies.

12. Admit when you’re wrong.

13. The dinner table is for eating. Not mobile phones.

14. Forgive yourself for your mistakes and learn from them.

15. Know how to cook one good meal.

16. If you don't understand, ask before it’s too late.

17. Don't make promises unless you're going to keep them

18. Appreciate your parents. Theyre amazing.

19. Buy the orange properties on monopoly.

20. Never waste nutella. Use a scoop of ice cream to get the last bits from the jar.

21. Respect other people's problems. They belong to them.

22. Laugh at yourself. 

23. Win and lose gracefully. 

24. Not everyone wants advice or suggestions. Usually you just need to listen.

25. It doesn't matter who did it, clean it up.

26. If there is a woman in your life, she's ALWAYS right. 

27. Stop thinking about what you've done wrong and start doing what you're going to do right.

28. Hot pan, cold oil. Food never sticks

29. Remember violence isn't an answer but If there is NO choice but to fight. Punch first and punch hard.'

30. Know when to stop.

It should go unsaid that before going through this list of wise words and idea you introduce the word phrase life hack to your students. Here is a great page to give them the idea lifehacks.com. Then, after sharing my list I get students to compiling their own lis of at least ten ideas. This can be done in class or at home. If it's at home get students to look online for things like life hacks. I got them to share them with the class and keep the list to hand so they could take classmates ideas and add them to their own list to give themselves a top 15 and beyond. 

Another thing I've got my students to do with as many of these tips as possible is to rephrase them as a way to aid UOE part 4.

I also encourage them to keep it close to hand so if they ever come across or think of other ideas to add them to their list. 

The worksheet is below and can be downloaded and edited from the same place as always just look for Tips and Life Hacks

Unfill and Fill it yourself

Something all teachers understand is how much work goes into the preperation of classes. With a little bit of experience planning time is reduced massively but when it comes to prep we`re all accutley aware of how much time it takes. That's why we all love the internet so much. Ideas can be shared, used, reused abused adapeted and so on. For those quick ideas I love the internet.

One thing I love even more, however, is learner autonomy. Students taking charge of their own learning. I, like a great number of you out there, also like to take this one step further. Rather than the students simply being in charge of their own learning why not let them take charge of their fellow students learning. The best source of information, support and materials is obviously the students themselves.

A week or so ago I posted a blog with a questionnaire about my students so I could tailor the class to their needs, likes and desires. I've used this in my classes to get my students more involved in class.

Added to this I've always been keen on students taking control of the class and teachers sitting back and shutting up. The esl classroom is a place for students to learn and use the language they're learnt. Not a place for teachers to fulfil their unacheived ambitions of becoming an actor and hogging the entire class.

The first small step towards this, as I've found, is asking students to create their own gap fill exercises. First for a song they like (as you can see here.) Then for a part of the Use of English exam from an article they have read.

Here is a very basic lesson plan for this kind of actvity.

1. After using the questionnaire here to find out some of the things your students are interested in, suggest a few different websites or blogs they could read to improve their English. A number of my students love football, I tell them to read BBC sport or I trawl back through the archives of the joy of six from The Guardian news paper. Here's a great one about Hipsters' favourite football clubs.

2. Next I ask students to read their text.
If they're making a part 1 reading activity I then ask them to write 5 or six multiple choice activities for the text.

3. For reading part two simply take out a few seperate sentences and invent a few new ones.

4. If they're making a Use of English part one I ask them to select two paragraphs and remove words they can then find synonyms for. Particularly those which are parts of phrasal verbs or have a strong collocation or a dependent preposition.

5. If they are making a Use of English Part 2, again just two paragraphs this time removing the function words like prepositions, pronouns, relative pronouns and so on.

6. The final exam part I usually ask students to do is the UOE part three where they remove words from the text and place a root word as a hint. The word formation activity. I try and make sure they find at least one negative within their text.

You can do this next part in a couple of different ways.

7. I tend to use these examparts as a quick review in class and i get the students who has prepared it to correct the work and then explain to the group why each answer is what it is.

An alternative option here is to get all of your students to do one part then in the class do each others work, then mark them together. I find this good as a fun way to do it but far less productive than the other option. With option one there is real ownership of the work and you're provided with a wider variety of exam practice.

This activity can take a little while to get into production but once it gets going you'll see some remarkable results and the constant search for past exam papers can slowly come to an end.

It also takes the fear away from the exams as they see just how easy it can be when you know what you're doing.

Boldly Taking Movie Quotes Where They Have Never Been Before

Happy Friday one and all. Just a few more hours 'til the weekend and for many of us the promise of a nice or two off.

Reported Speech is something well covered from about B1 level. After getting to grips with the grammar I have a two stage activity. Partly to get used to reported speech and then partly just for the fun of it and to see if my students have managed to remember some of the world’s most famous movie quotes.

There are a myriad of games to allow your students to practice their new found skill. One I was introduced to a couple of days ago tests your student’s movie knowledge, their ability to translate from the language they first saw the movie and then how to convert some of the most famous quotes in movie history into reported speech.

Your student´s level will, obviously, dictate the difficulty of the task, the reporting verbs they use and whether they chuck a few adverbs in there as well.

The first step is to get onto the fantastic  Movie Quotes then run through each of the images to identify which movies the quotes come from.

Step two, hit the timer and get the students to take turns in giving you a quote to one of the movies on the screen. 

Seven minutes later the time will have run out and all the missing quotes will be revealed and the students will have a chance to take the famous quotes and report them to their classmates.  

This works as a wonderful cooler after going through the "rules" of reported speech or as a warmer in the next class to make sure they still have it down.. My students really enjoyed it.

 This was a big first step for a lot of my classes. A huge number of them had absolutely no clue as to the original quotes due to the fact Spain has a reputation for dubbing films. Even to this day 90% of cinemas don't have original versions of films.

After the students have got their heads around the fact these quotes exist outside their own language give it a weekend or so to digest. 

When they come back what I have done, taking the lead from my good friend Neil, is taken these quotes and misquoted them from a film with a similar name. Students have to then match films to quotes and correct them for their original. 

You can find the worksheet with misquoted lyrics here Or just copy and paste these below.

1.       “This Boat is too small.”

2.       “Luke, you are my son.”

3.       “Say hello to my small friend.”

4.       “Are you speaking to me.”

5.       “Johnny is here.”

6.       “Houston, we appear to be having some technical issues.”

7.       “I can see Ghosts”

8.       “You deal much better with lies.”

9.       “Hi I’m James, James Bond.”

10 “I’m going to make him an offer to which he can’t say no.”

11.   “My favourite.”

12.   “Can I call my house.”

13.   “Home is the best place.”

14.   “To infinity and past it.”

15.   “Don’t walk Forrest, Don’t Walk.”

16.   “You’re good at Magic, Harry.”

17.   “I’m a monarch of the Earth.”

18.   “Why are you being so serious?”

19.   “Until the next time, darling.”

20.   O’ boss, my boss

And here are the wrong movie names.

a.       War of the Stars

b.      Bus Guy

c.       Henry Porter

d.      The Ring Man

e.      Apollo 15

f.        Royal Casino

g.       Another Sense

h.      A Story about Toys

i.         Woodsy Gumble

j.        The Father of God

k.       Boat vs Iceberg

l.         The Alien Chap

m.    Terminationer

n.      A Society of Dead Writiers

o.      Some ok Blokes

p.      The Magician from Australia

q.      Cutface

r.        Batbloke: A gloomy evening

s.       Shark

t.        The Brightness

Right that's all for today.  Have a great holiday where ever you may be. If you don't have a holiday just go ahead and have a great weekend.

For regular updates why not follow me on twitter @thefluencyfella

ANSWERS

1.s 2. 2.a 3.q 4.b 5.t 6.e 7.g 8.o 9.f 10.j 11.d 12.l 13.p 14.h 15.i 16.c 17.k 18.r 19.m 20.n

Phrasal Verbs Battle Ships

I spent this morning sitting in a Cambridge seminar thinking and talking about various techniques for the Use of English and Reading exams. There was a huge amount of idea sharing and some wonderful idea. 

At one stage the speaker asked us if we had any interesting ways of teaching our students phrasal verbs. I piped up with my idea of phrasal verb battle ships. So for those of you who were there you just need to click on this link and look for "Phrasal Verb Battle Ships"

The worksheet contains the game board, definitions of each phrasal verb and an example sentence. It also has a space for students to write their own example. 

The rules are simple: 

1) Draw your ships on anywhere your Grid.

2) Say sentence using a phrasal verb to select a question.

3) If you HIT a Ship Answer the Question if you MISS all ships it’s                                       your partner’s turn to guess.

4) Win by sinking all your partner’s ships.  

It tends to take a fair while so I usually use it as a warmer and then later as a cooler or as a warmer for three or four classes in a row. 

Good luck and have fun.