Esl Activities
Author:
Les
Movement in a room creates changing social dynamics. And language is a social activity. Also, when students move they become more aware of their environment. This is a sort of heightened sensitivity. It increases their perceptive skills. The input is channeled straight to the brain.
When we move, we breathe deeper. We get lots more oxygen. This helps us think better. But really, moving is just plain more fun. When we get up to do an ESL activity (as opposed to sitting down), I can see many more smiles.
ESL activities are supposed to help students learn English so they can use it. Reading and writing can help with this. But I feel that listening and speaking are the master skills that underlie them.
If we make activities that encourage listening and speaking, our students will learn better. And deeper.
So I have four ingredients in my ESL activities.
Repeating
You need to memorize a lot to learn a language. And repetition is essential. Ask yourself: Do you have activities that help the students repeat the target language? So they can hear it many times, and say it many times?
Listening
Unfortunately, it is easy to start listening and then give up soon because, well, simply, we don\'t understand it. And often students don\'t have to listen. They can guess very well. We have to change that by making activities with question and answer. A bit of randomness is good. So that students need to listen to the question, or perhaps another student’s prior answer to make a good response.
Listening to English passages that have reductions can be fun. The students know the words, but can’t understand them due to the reductions. They really pick up their attention to these listening activities.
Speaking
Let the students interact with each other, and exchange information. It doesn\'t always have to be deep and meaningful if the target language is challenging. Flashcards give good ‘seeds’ for the students to start talking about things.
A Sample
In my classes we have a ball learning English. Literally. I have a ball. Everyone stands up (movement). We throw the ball and catch it (more movement). We ask questions to each other (speaking, listening). We keep doing this (repeating). The set of questions is limited. For instance, general routine questions. What time do you..? Where do you...? And so on.
There is one important thing to remember. Throwing balls is fun but not for too long. It makes repeating more fun but not for too long. Perhaps 4 to 8 minutes of fun is good.
Have fun!
In my classes we have a ball learning English. Literally. I have a ball. Everyone stands up (movement). We throw the ball and catch it (more movement). We ask questions to each other (speaking, listening). We keep doing this (repeating). The set of questions is limited. For instance, general routine questions. What time do you..? Where do you...? And so on.
There is one important thing to remember. Throwing balls is fun but not for too long. It makes repeating more fun but not for too long. Perhaps 4 to 8 minutes of fun is good.
Have fun!
(find the original article here along with a sample listening activity, a story with phrasal verbs used in context!)
About the Author
Les Perras is an English teacher in Ikoma, Japan. He teaches there in his own school, a franchise of Smith\'s School of English. In addition, he is the author of the website English Listening World .
