GAME PLAN

LISTS
Stop, go back dictation
Submitted by TE Editor on 2 June, 2010 - 17:23

This is a dictation activity which pushes students to make sense of the language they hear by
writing it down as accurately as possible. Different to traditional dictations, the learners
themselves control the dictation, with learners asking the teacher to ‘stop’ and ‘go back’, as
many times as they want. My students particularly like this aspect which makes them feel in
control of their learning. Suitable for classes of any level, this activity demands little teacher
preparation.

Preparation
You will need a short text (not more than 50 words) which you think will be of value to your
students. This could be to introduce some new language, for revision, or to expose students to
a particular text type, such as a short note.

Procedure

 I draw on the board three symbols as they are on the classroom cassette machine:
play, stop and go back (rewind).

 I then elicit or pre-teach these terms, telling the class that in a minute I will be their
‘cassette machine’. I explain to students that I will be playing a short text that they
should write down word per word. I will read at normal speed but at any time they can
ask me to stop and go back to a particular point in the text: e.g. ‘stop, go back to "she
was wearing’’.

 Once students are ready with pencil and paper I stand at the front of the class, without
speaking. Students normally look at each other for a few seconds, then somebody
thinks to shout out ‘play’ and I start reading!

 I usually read at a slow-normal speed, trying to read the sentences with natural
intonation and linking between words, rather than uttering each word separately.
  I let the class take complete control, stopping only when they ask me to using the
‘stop-go-back’ formula, and if not, reading on until they do (it may take them a few
goes before they understand how to successfully stop their ‘cassette machine’).

 The dictation goes on until all the students feel satisfied with their text. I find that
even when the slower / weaker students ask the teacher to go back, the fast / stronger
students still feel this is useful for them as they use this to carefully check what they
have written.

 Once everybody has the full text, students can then ask their ‘cassette machine’ to
read it through one more time.

 I give students a few minutes to compare their texts in pairs, and then hand out copies
of the original for them to check against.

 An interesting alternative for feeding-back is for the students to re-dictate the text to
the teacher. I make sure to write up the text exactly as they say it (i.e. keeping any
mistakes). Once the whole text is on the board, I guide my students to identifying any
areas that are not correct, and go over them.

 Rather than then finish with the text, it can be productive for learners to look at it
more closely, be it for language focus, genre analysis or for a discussion of meaning.
Having acquired the text themselves (through controlling the dictation), any work
done at this stage can be particularly engaging for students, helping them to better
understand and retain the language.

Marta J. Sabbadini, British Council, Cameroon

Goodbye game
Submitted by Derek Spafford on 10 March, 2010 - 16:01

This activity is great for last lessons of a course, but could be used in other contexts too. It is
influenced by an idea from Headway Pre-Intermediate.

Preparation
No preparation is really necessary for this activity. However it might be useful to have the
situations below prepared on the board in advance. There is also a worksheet of how to say
goodbye in different languages which you could print and copy.

Procedure
Elicit ways of saying goodbye. How do people say goodbye in different countries? Complete
a matching activity of goodbyes and countries (see worksheet).
Now present the situation that is likely to occur in the next hour or so. That is, you will say
goodbye to each other. Elicit language from the students in order to build a dialogue between
you and a student that climaxes in goodbye (or a variation).

Now write up different situations on the board. These could include the following but also
encourage students to add their own:

 A mother saying goodbye to her daughter on the first day of school

 A man saying goodbye to his wife as he goes to fight in a war

 A prisoner saying goodbye to his cellmate before he is released

 A president saying goodbye to another president after an important meeting

 A boy saying goodbye to a girl after they’ve just broken up.

Now put the students into pairs and ask them to choose a situation but not tell anyone.
Students then write a short dialogue for their situation. Monitor and help with language where
necessary.

Students can then act their dialogues out in front of the class. Encourage the other students to
guess which situation they are acting out. It may be better to get them to write it down the
situation they think is being acted.

Extension
Ask learners to share their dialogues with each other in order to act out more situations for
further practice. You could also ask students to record their dialogues and create gapfill
activities or jumbled dialogues.

By Derek Spafford

Lucky number 6
Submitted by joanna_adkin on 3 March, 2010 - 12:19

This is a quick simple game that reviews question forms and can be used as a warmer or a
filler at the end of the lesson with all students aged 7 – 11.

Preparation

 Chop up the letters from the worksheet and put them in an envelope.
 Have enough dice for 1 per pair of students in the class.

Plan
  Elicit the question words (which the students know) and put write them on the board
e.g. what, where, when, how, who, which, whose?

 Put students in pairs and give each pair a dice. Elicit from students the numbers on a
dice (1 - 6). Ask students which is the best/luckiest number (answer: 6). Tell students
to take turns throwing the dice and when they throw a six, put up their hands and
shout your name. (At this stage depending on the age of the student you may want to
check they can do this.)

 Show the students your bag, or envelope. Get them to guess what is inside. Show/tell
students that in your bag, envelope you have many letters. These are the prize.

 Explain that students throw a six, put up their hands, shout your name and this time,
ask you a question. Refer them to the question words on the board if necessary. If the
question is grammatically correct/interesting etc you give them a letter from your bag.
Also answer the question. (e.g. student asks ‘What’s your favourite colour? Teacher
says ‘Pink’ and hands students a letter.)

 Continue the game for 5 minutes (or as long as necessary) handing out letters for
correct questions. Extra letters can be handed out for more fantastic questions.

 At the end of the game, pairs will have a pile of letters. Tell them to spell as many
words as possible using those letters or for higher levels try to get them to spell the
longest word. The pair with the most words or the longest word is the winner.

Shopping at the minimarket

Submitted by joanna_adkin on 17 February, 2010 - 15:08

This speaking activity reviews uncountable and countable nouns (food), some/any and prices
and is suitable for pre-intermediate 9 -11 year olds. Students draw their own shop and
contents and write lists of things they want to buy. The teacher elicits a dialogue and then
students mingle to go shopping at the shops to try to buy everything on their list.

The activity also contains an element of mathematics as students add up how much they
spend at the shops. The activity could be adapted for different kinds of shops (e.g. clothes).

To set up the activity requires quite a lot of preparation. However, this activity can be
repeated over future lessons as a review (using new shopping lists) and develops a number of
skills (CLIL) and creates an appropriate context for students to communicate at this age.

Materials
Shopping at the minimarket student worksheet (1 per student)

Colouring pencils

Procedure
 Draw a big diagram of the shop on the board or large piece of paper (see outline on
students worksheet) but don’t tell students what it is yet. Draw yourself in the shop.
Draw a table and a cash till on it. Ask the following questions.

 Who is this? (you)

 What’s this (a cash till)

 So where am I? (in a shop)

 What is my job? (shop assistant)

 Whose shop is it? (mine).

 What does the shop sell ? (food)

 Can you think of a name for my shop? (e.g. Jo’s mini-market)

 Write the name of the shop in the top box.

 Draw some shelves and tables. Draw some apples on a table and elicit what is in the
shop (e.g. There are some apples). Elicit from the students what is in the shop (e.g.
there are some pears, there is some milk etc) and draw them in the shop until the shop
is full. However, leave a space so that you have room to draw an extra person – see
stage 6).

 (Optional activity: Give students 2 minutes to memorise what is in the shop. Hide or
cover the shop. In teams students tell you what was in the shop (There are some/There
aren’t any ….s). Give points for correct answers. Uncover/reveal the shop to check
the answers.

 Give out worksheet and tell students to draw their own shops. Remind them to draw
themselves as the shop assistant, fill up the shelves, and give the shop a name.
Students can draw as few or as many different items in the shops. It is good for the
shops to be quite varied as it will help with the effectiveness of the mingle activity.

 Tell the students there is a problem with the shop. Elicit what the problem is. (There
are no prices.) Elicit some prices for some of the foods in the shop. Students then add
prices to their own shops.

 Get students to put their own shops away.

 On Board draw a second person in the shop. Ask:

 Who is this person?’ (the customer)

 What does he want to do? (Buy something in the shop)

  Tell students he is very forgetful and needs help to remember what he wants to buy.
Ask ‘what has he got to help him remember?’ A list. Draw a list on the board and
elicit 5 items that he wants to buy. At this point try to elicit the kinds of containers
that items come in e.g. 3 bottles of milk, 1 bag of sugar etc. Write them on the list.

 Ask the students ‘Who speaks first in the shop?’ (The shop assistant). Elicit what
he/she says and write it up on the board. Continue to elicit the whole dialogue (see
dialogue example) until you have a whole dialogue on the board. (Alternatively, you
could chop up the dialogue worksheet and the students put it in order). Drill the
dialogue.

 Tell students that they are going to come to your shop to buy some food. Students
complete their shopping lists on the worksheet. Remind them to try to include the
amount (e.g. 3 bags of sugar).

 Ask the class as a whole ‘Can I help you?’ and encourage them individually to shout
out ‘Yes, please. Have you got any ….. ? / I’d like some ….. .’ Go through the
dialogue. At this point it is important that they get practice of the dialogue. Keep
checking pronunciation and that they are using the correct forms of some/any etc.
Then hand over the role of shop assistant to a student and repeat.

 Split the class in two. Half of them are shop assistants in the shop. The other half are
customers. Position the shop assistants around the class. The customers go to all the
shops to try to buy the items on their shopping list. Demonstrate this first with your
own shopping list. Highlight how when they buy something they need to write down
how much it costs on their shopping list.

 Students mingle. Set a time limit for as long as you feel appropriate. Students swop
roles. (Students may worry about the mathematics and slow down the activity.
Monitor and tell students they can invent the approximate price if necessary).

 The first time the students mingle they may need the support of the dialogue on the
board ; as students become more and more confident with the dialogue they can do it
unsupported in future lessons.

 Give students time to add up the total cost of what they bought.

 Feedback on what the students bought and how much they spent. Was there anything
they couldn’t buy? Which shop was the most expensive?

Pairwork: tai chi classes

Submitted by Katherine Bilsb... on 25 February, 2010 - 11:39

This is a simple pairwork activity that can be used with low level groups to provide practice
in the present simple question form – What does he/she do on…?, days of the week, times
and leisure activities. The lesson is designed for adults but could also be used with older
teenagers.

Activity: Find out about the daily activities of another person

Activity type: Information gap/exchange
Level: Up to B1
Age: Adults or Senior YLs

Preparation

 Make one copy of the worksheet per pair, and cut into two sheets, A and B.
 Brainstorm vocabulary for leisure activities and write them on the board. Help them
using mime, drawings, descriptions or translation. Encourage the students to come up
with leisure activities that they do.
 Ask students at random what they do in their leisure time: What do you do on
Mondays/Tuesdays/Wednesdays…? etc.

Procedure

 Put the students into pairs. One student in each pair is given a copy of sheet A, and the
other sheet B. They should not show their partner. Explain that sheet A has
information about half of Sonia and Nick’s busy social and leisure agenda. Sheet B
has the other half.
 Explain that Sonia and Nick want to go to Tai Chi classes together but first they have
to find a time and day when they are both free.
 By asking questions, the pairs complete the two agendas and try to find a time when
both Nick and Sonia are free to go to Tai Chi classes. Point out the times of the Tai
Chi classes on the flyer which appears on both sheet A and B.

For example

A: What does Nick do on Mondays?

B: He goes to Arabic class from 4 o’ clock to six o’ clock.

B: What does Sonia do on Mondays?

A: She goes to a cinema club from 7 o’ clock to nine o’ clock.

Extension
In the same pairs, students ask each other about their leisure activities.

Mingling: True or false?

Submitted by Katherine Bilsb... on 10 February, 2010 - 11:38
 This is a simple mingling activity that can be used with low level groups to provide practice
in asking and answering questions. The lesson is designed for adults but could also be used
with older teenagers.

Activity: True or false?

Activity type: Mingling – asking and answering questions
Level: Up to B1.
Age: Adults or Senior YLs

Preparation
Write these two incomplete statements on the board:

1 ……………… has got a bike.

2 ……………… goes to bed late.

Fill the gaps with the names of two students who are present.

1 (Paulo) has got a bike.

2 (Jan) goes to bed late.

Explain that you want to find out whether these statements are true or false. In order to do
that, you need to ask (Paulo) and (Jan) a question. Elicit the questions that need to be asked.

1 Have you got a bike?

2 Do you go to bed late?

Invite another student to ask the first question to (Paulo). If (Paulo’s) answer is yes, write true
at the end of the statement. If the answer is no, write false. Repeat the process with the
second question.

Procedure
Give each student a copy of the handout and tell them to fold it along the dotted line.

Students complete the first column by writing the names of their classmates. They should
write everybody’s name at least once. They should not write their own name but they can
include the teacher’s name.

Students then unfold the handout and read through the statements. Explain the meaning of
any unknown vocabulary as necessary and encourage students to work in pairs, anticipating
the questions that they will need to ask.

At this stage you can elicit the first few questions and write them on the board:

Do you read the newspaper every day?

Do you like sushi?

Can you make a cake?

Students then mingle, asking and answering their questions and writing true or false.

Extension
For stronger groups, encourage them to ask for further information about each statement. For
example, if a student reads the newspaper every day, ask: "Which newspaper do you read?"

Downloadable worksheet

Make one copy of the worksheet per student.

Names:

1 ……………………….. reads the newspaper every day.

2 ……………………….. likes sushi.

3 ……………………….. can make a cake.

4 ……………………….. drinks coffee every morning.

5 ……………………….. plays a musical instrument.

6 ……………………….. eats in a restaurant every week.

7 ……………………….. loves The Beatles.

8 ……………………….. can speak French.

9 ……………………….. has got a pet.

10 ……………………….. is vegetarian.

11 ……………………….. can juggle.

12 ……………………….. is very happy at the moment.

13 ……………………….. chats online every day.

14 ……………………….. comes to class by bus.

15 ……………………….. hasn’t got a car.

16 ……………………….. gets up early every day.

17 ……………………….. has got three brothers and a sister.

18 ……………………….. thinks Madonna is great.

19 ……………………….. goes to the gym.

20 ……………………….. can say “Hello” in five languages.

 By Katherine Bilsborough

Pairwork: What’s in the fridge?

Submitted by Katherine Bilsb... on 3 February, 2010 - 13:50

 This is a another simple pairwork activity that can be used with low level groups to provide
practice in countable and uncountable nouns, in the question structure – How much … is
there? /How many … are there? and the corresponding answers There is … / There are …
and food vocabulary. The lesson is designed for adults but could also be used with older
teenagers.

Activity: To compare the contents of two fridges.

Activity type: Information gap/exchange.
Level: Up to B1.
Age: Adults or Senior YLs

Preparation
Draw a picture of a fridge on the board. Build the picture up slowly, line by line. Ask
students to guess what you are drawing. Elicit the word “fridge”.

Put students into pairs or small groups and get them to write a list of five things they would
expect to find in everybody’s fridge.

Get students to compare their lists with their classmates. Ask a few questions to introduce the
structures “How much …?” and “How many …?”

How many eggs have you got in your fridge? How much milk have you got in your fridge?

Procedure
Put the students into pairs. One student in each pair is given a copy of sheet A, and the other
sheet B. They should not show their partner. Explain that each student has a picture of two
fridges; their own fridge with all of its contents and their partner’s empty fridge.

Students ask and answer questions about their partner’s fridge and try to find eight
differences.

Eg
A How many eggs have you got in your fridge?

B I’ve got six eggs in my fridge.

A I’ve got twelve eggs. That’s one difference!

Extension
Students write a list of everything their partner has got in their fridge.

Downloadable worksheet

Make one copy of the worksheet per pair, and cut into two sheets, A and B.

Noah's Ark in Space

Submitted by veronateflteacher on 27 January, 2010 - 09:36

This is a small group, free discussion activity aimed at pre-intermediate students and above,
in which students are asked to decide which animals should be selected to go aboard a space-
craft in order to safeguard their survival. Time: About thirty minutes.

Procedure

 Organise the students into small groups and introduce the topic.
o Disaster! An unknown virus is rapidly killing all known animal species.
Fortunately, human beings and fish seem to be immune from the virus, but all
other animals are at risk, and tragically many thousands of animals and birds
have already died. Scientists are working hard to identify the virus, but they
have predicted that many species face extinction if the virus cannot be
identified and a remedy found quickly.
o A plan has been devised: a space-craft is being built that will carry twenty
male and female pairs of animals into outer space, where they will be safe
from the effects of the virus until it is safe for them to return to earth. The ship
will be crewed by experts in animal care and husbandry, and it is hoped that
small breeding colonies of the selected animals can be created in order to
ensure the survival of the chosen species. The ship will be ready in a few
days…

 Explain the task: students must choose the twenty species which will go into space
aboard ‘Noah’s Ark’. There are no right and wrong answers, of course. Put a time
limit on the activity – say about twenty minutes, and tell the students that you would
like them to give you reasons for their choices.
 The activity can be extended by combining groups after twenty minutes, so that small
groups become bigger groups, which then also have to reach a decision regarding the
animals selected for survival. Eventually, it might be nice to get the whole class to try
and decide on the chosen twenty.
 At the end of the activity, get feedback from your students and write their choices on
the board…
Follow-up activities

 This activity can lead into a good class discussion about why animals are important.
Ask your students to try and imagine a world without animals – how would life be
different?
 A good homework follow up could be a little essay or assignment: Are Zoos
Important?

By David Done

Poems for the future

Submitted by TE Editor on 8 September, 2010 - 10:51

Here are some suggestions to help get your students writing poems based around the theme of
the future.

Firstly, you could begin by brainstorming topics related to the future through acrostic poems
or pictures. Ask your students to imagine they're living in the year 2100. What's life like?
What can they see around them? How far has space and technology advanced?

Example poem:

F
lying saucers
piter
JU
ime machines
T
ts
AstronaU
tians
MaR
ngineering
GeneticE 

 You could use either of the poems below as a model for your students:

When I look into the

future When I look into the future
There are robots There's a memory stick in my head
There are aliens There's a tracking device under my
There are saucers in the feet
sky There's a monitor behind my eyes
But there aren't any But there isn't a computer.
birds.


Example structure:

When I look into the future

There 's/are…
 There 's/are...
There 's/are…
But there isn't/aren't any …

 On a more personal note, the future could be explored through the senses. You could
use this example as a model to elicit ideas from your students. Play some relaxing
background music and ask them to close their eyes and imagine the sensations as they
think of different words.

Example:

My / The future is… (yellow)

It tastes like… (pasta)
It smells like… (a lemon)
It sounds like… (a mandolin)
It feels like… (a cat)
It looks like… (the sunrise)

 Ask your child/students to complete the sentences below to generate ideas for a poem
about their own future dreams. Here are two possible structures for their poems:

In my future life
I might …
I could…
I may…..
But I'll definitely…

In my future life
I'd like to be …
I'd like to...
And…
Then…
Please…

Here's a poem on a lighter note as an example of what they could produce.

 In my future life

I'd like to be a cat,
I'd like to sleep for 12 hours
Then dance around my flat.
I'd like to play by moonlight
And sunbathe in the sun,
I'd like to climb a palm tree
And catch my tail for fun.
I'd like to dine on fresh fish
Then drink a sea of milk,
I'd like to live-that's my last wish
Please ban all dogs from Earth!
You can also get your students to join a poetry competition for Younger learners at British
Council LearnEnglish Kids

Carolyne Ardron, British Council, Portugal

Put yourself in the picture

Submitted by NikPeachey on 1 September, 2010 - 15:07

This is a speaking task that encourages students to empathise with other people and try to
understand them better. The activity uses a number of visuals of migrants and the students
have to imagine they are the person in the picture. The activity is based on themes from the
British Council OPENCities project www.opencities.eu To find out more you can sign up for
the OPENCities newsletter

Preparation
Download the worksheet with the images of the people and make enough copies so that each
students can have one image.

 Images worksheet (pdf 313k)

Procedure

 Choose one of the images to model the procedure. Show the students the image of the
person you have chosen. Tell them the person is a migrant. Ask if they know what a
migrant is and explain if necessary.
 Ask them to try to guess information about the person in the picture. Here are some
question prompts to get them thinking.
o How does the person feel?
o What is s/he thinking about?
o Where did s/he come from/
o What does s/he do now?
o How long has s/he been away from their country?
o How do they feel about the country they left?
o How does s/he feel about the country s/he lives in now?
o What problems did s/he have in the new country?
o Why did s/he leave their country?
o etc.
 Try to get your students to imagine as much information as they can, it doesn’t matter
if it is correct or not, just let them use their imagination.
 Now give each student a picture. Tell them that they are the person in the picture and
that they should try to imagine what their life is like. Give them some time to think
about this and make notes if necessary.
 Now put them in groups so that each group has a person with a different one of the
pictures.
 Tell the students that they are all at a party and that they should find out about the
other people at the party.
  Give them time to talk in their groups. When they have finished ask them how it felt
to be somebody else and ask if they were happy.
 Ask them which person in each group they thought was the most interesting and why.
 You could follow this up by a discussion of some of the problems of moving to a new
country.

What's the question?

Submitted by veronateflteacher on 7 July, 2010 - 18:26

This is a pair-work reading, (speaking) and grammar-based activity for elementary students.
It mainly practises question formation, reading comprehension and the ability to identify and
correct factual mistakes in a text.

Age: Teenage/adult

Level: A2+

Timing: about 40 mins

'Chatty' magazine has sent one of its top reporters to interview Hollywood actor, Sam
Jemson. Students are provided with two worksheets. The first (A) contains twenty two
answers to questions asked during the interview. Students working in pairs must try and work
out what the questions were according to Sam’s answers.

In the second part of the exercise, students are given a second worksheet (B), with the
magazine article based on the answers to the questions on worksheet A. There are a number
of factual mistakes in the text. Students are asked to put away worksheet A and then to
identify and correct the mistakes made by the reporter in the finished article.

Procedure

 Divide the class into pairs. Make enough copies of both worksheets for each pair of
students. Distribute copies of worksheet A.
 Introduce the topic and then give students a good fifteen minutes to try and write
down which questions were asked by the interviewer during the interview. Circulate,
giving help and support where appropriate. At the end of the time allotted, elicit the
questions for each of the answers on the sheet from the class, writing a correct
example answer for each question on the board.
 Remind students that it’s possible that an answer has more than one correct question.
 Next, ask students to put away worksheet A and then distribute copies of worksheet
B. Explain the second task and then give students at least another fifteen minutes to
identify and correct in writing the factual mistakes in the text. Circulate and give help
again.
 Again, at the end of the task, elicit corrections from the class. Ask students to return
to worksheet A to check their answers.
  Additionally, it could be a nice idea for students to practise their speaking ability by
role-playing the interview with Sam. Ask them to swap roles, so each person gets to
play Sam and the reporter respectively.  
  

Follow-up activity

Ask students (for homework?) to do some research on their favourite actor. Ask them to write
a short profile in their own words of between eighty and one hundred words.

Revising texts
Submitted by TE Editor on 23 June, 2002 - 13:00

When it comes to revision, this is an activity I've found time-effective and motivating. After
my students have worked on three texts in the textbook and done various comprehension and
grammar exercises I use this activity to revise.

The activity goes like this:

 First, I tell my students to read the first text we did for exactly 1 minute (I tell them
not to read the whole text, just to scan the main points). When the time is up, I tell
them to close the books, but they may open their copybooks.

On the board, I had already written 5 questions they should answer:

o What is the story in the text about?
o Who are the people in the story?
o What do they do?
o What can we learn from the text?
o What are the new words or expressions?
o e.g. I ask them to tell me 3 important verbs, 3 adjectives, 3 prepositions...

 I prompt their answers by writing this next to the questions:

o The story in the text is about...
o The people in the story are...
o They...
o We can learn that...

This is important because weaker students can easily get to grips with what I ask them to do,
yet more advanced students put their efforts into making more complex sentences.

 Second, for each question I call for 3 different answers from 3 different students. That
way, each student tries to give a better answer, someone combines 2 previous
answers, someone gives a whole new idea of the context.
  I praise their comments, even if they are simple. And we all benefit from this quite
lively and competitive spirit in the class.

Neskovic Milos, Serbia

CLIL PSHE: Healthy eating

Submitted by chrisbaldwin on 11 June, 2010 - 12:07

This activity aims to develop primary pupils’ understanding of healthy, balanced eating and
provides practice of basic food vocabulary and the present simple tense. It also has cross-
curricular links to PE.

Aims

Content

 Balanced eating

Language

 Lexis – food
 Grammar – present simple (and possibly quantifiers)
 Skills – speaking and writing

Preparation
Prepare the worksheet for each pupil. Alternatively, to save paper, draw/project one large
copy on the board and tell students to copy it.

Procedure

 With pupils in groups, give them one minute to think of as many types of food as they can.
The group with the most is the winner.
 Tell groups to read out their lists and add any that they hadn’t thought of to their lists.
 Tell pupils to put their foods into two lists – healthy food and unhealthy food. At this stage,
don’t tell them if they are right or wrong.
 Give out the worksheet to pupils and tell them to match the labels to the correct part of the
pyramid, working individually.
 Check as a whole class and explain the concept of the pyramid – food at the bottom is the
most important and we food at the top the least important/healthy.
 Tell pupils to think of more food which fits into each group on the pyramid and write it on,
using their list of food from stage 3 to help.
  Tell pupils to think about their eating habits and write what they usually eat in a day (using
the present simple and possibly quantifiers), e.g. “I eat lots of rice, some vegetables like
carrots and cabbage…” You may need to give an example first.
 Pupils compare their eating habits and see who the healthiest eater in their group/class is.

Extension
Pupils can write out a good daily diet based on the food pyramid, either in class or for
homework. They could even keep track of what they eat over one week to see how healthily
they really eat.

By Chris Baldwin

CLIL PE: Football training

Submitted by chrisbaldwin on 11 June, 2010 - 11:33

This activity uses a football training video from the BBC to help secondary pupils improve
their football at the same time as their English listening skills. If you are interested in
football, don’t forget the excellent Premier Skills website, although this is more general
English than PE/CLIL related.

Aims

Content

 football skills: control and first touch

Language

 Lexis – football terminology

 Skills – Listening

Preparation

 This activity requires an internet connection in the classroom to watch the video. I suggest
you downstream the whole video before the lesson begins so that it plays smoothly during the
lesson.

 Prepare one worksheet per pupil, or alternatively project / write the questions on the board
and tell pupils to copy them into their books.

Procedure

 Ask pupils to brainstorm all the football words they know in English.
 Play the video and ask pupils to listen for the football words they listed before. (Football
words in the video include: ball, dribble and pass)
 Give out the worksheet, let pupils read the questions without answering yet. Let pupils
check/look up any unknown vocabulary in the questions.
 Play the video again. Pupils answer the questions whist watching.
 If necessary, play the video again.
  Check answers by playing the video and stopping before and after the answer to the question
is given. The answers are: 1.b, 2.c, 3.a, 4.b, 5.b, 6.c

Extension
Go out and play, using the newly studied language to give instructions. This video is the first
in a series of football training videos. You could continue by showing your pupils more of
these, available on this page.

By Chris Baldwin

Same as the teacher?

Submitted by TE Editor on 9 June, 2010 - 10:38

This activity is designed to be used as a vocabulary review or test of existing knowledge of

the learners' vocabulary. It generates lots of words and is a lot of fun. The categories can be
changed to suit the level and learner.

Preparation
Make a list of ten words for a number of categories depending on your learners' needs (do
this alphabetically as it will be easier to scan for answers if using procedure 2). There is an
example attached of categories you could choose.
Print out answer sheets for learners in groups.

Procedure 1

 Put the learners into teams depending on the class size and distribute the answer sheets.

 Explain to the learners that they have one minute to write down as many words as they can
think of that relate to the category that you choose. They will receive one point for every
word that is the same as yours and a bonus of five if they get all ten.

 Tell students the name of the first category and set a time limit. After the time is up tell the
learners to stop.

 Ask the learners to swap their answer sheets so they can check each other's answers.

 Read out your answers, while you do this learners check each other's answers and give the
sheets back to the other groups. You can be as strict as you like on the spelling.

 Ask students to tell you the scores and keep a record of these on the board.

 Repeat the procedure with different categories.

Alternative Procedure

 Put the learners into teams depending on class size.

  Explain to the learners that they have one minute to think of and say words related to a
category that you choose.

 The teacher then selects a category and tells group A his or her choice.

 Group A then have one minute to shout out the words you have written on the list.

 The teacher says yes or no depending on the whether they are on the list or not.

 Teams score one point for each word and a bonus of five if they get all ten.

 Select a different category for teams B and C and repeat.

 You could use the opposing teams as timekeepers and scorekeepers.

When the activities are over you could analyse the results and decide what lexical areas
learners are strong in and what may need more work. You could also deal with any
pronunciation areas that need work and any unfamiliar language that learners have been
exposed to.

Written by Derek Spafford, Teacher & ICT Coordinator, British Council, Thailand

Mingling: Terry’s trip

Submitted by Katherine Bilsb... on 20 January, 2010 - 14:16

Introduction
This is a simple mingling activity that can be used with low level groups to provide practice
in the past simple, particularly the question form. The lesson is designed for adults but could
also be used with teenagers.

Activity: information gap

Activity type: mingling, asking and answering questions.
Level: Up to B1.
Age: Adults or Senior YLs

Preparation
Write this on the board:

HARRY’S HOLIDAY

He went to…

He went by…

The weather was…

Elicit simple ideas about Harry’s holiday

Explain to the students that you know the missing information for these unfinished sentences.
Elicit the questions needed to find out the missing information. As students come up with the
questions, answer them and write both the questions and the answers on the board.

Where did Harry go? (He went to Benidorm)

How did he go? (He went by plane)

What was the weather like? (It was sunny)

Procedure
Give each student a copy of ‘A’. Cut ‘B’ into strips with individual sentences and hand them
out. If you have less than 18 students, give more than one to each. If you have more than 18,
divide the students into groups of 9 and give them two strips each.

Explain to the students that they are going to ask questions to find out all the missing
information about Terry’s Trip ( ‘A’). They should begin by filling in the information they
already have on their strip(s) of paper. Then students mingle and find out all the missing
information.

If necessary, elicit all the questions that the students will need to complete the activity.

Where did Terry go?

How did he go?

Where did he stay?

What did he eat?

What did he drink?

What did he take?

What did he send?

What did he buy?

Where/What did he visit?

What did he see?

What was the weather like?

What were the people like?

What time did he get up?

What time did he go to bed?

What did he have?

Who did he speak to?

Who did he meet?

What did he decide?

Extension
Write on the board:

PARIS – NEW YORK – TOKYO

Tell the students to choose one of these places. Then write:

2005 – 2007 - 2009

Tell the students to choose one of these years. Then write:

BY PLANE – BY SHIP –BY BIKE

Tell the students to choose one of these forms of transport. Then write:

IN A HOTEL – AT A CAMPSITE – WITH A FRIEND

Tell the students to choose one of these places to stay.

Tell the students to imagine that they went to their chosen place, in their chosen year by their
chosen form of transport and stayed in their chosen type of accommodation. Then by
mingling and asking questions (questions?) the students have to try and find another person in
the class that went to the same place, in the same year, by the same means of transport and
stayed in the same type of accommodation.

Downloadable worksheet

Make one copy of photocopiable A per student, and one strip of Photocopiable B per 18 ss. (2
strips for 9, 3 strips for 6)

Terry’s trip (Photocopiable A)

1 He went to ……………..

2 He went by ……………….

3 He stayed in ……………..

4 He ate ……………..
5 He drank ……………..

6 He took ……………..

7 He sent ……………..

8 He bought ……………..

9 He visited ……………..

10 He saw ……………..

11 The weather was ……………..

12 The people were ……………..

13 He got up ……………..

14 He went to bed ……………..

15 He had ……………..

16 He spoke to ……………..

17 He met……………..

18 He decided ……………..

Terry’s trip (photocopiable B)

He went to Paris.

He went by plane.

He stayed in a five-star hotel.

He ate French fries and croissants.

He drank black coffee.

He took lots of photographs.

He sent postcards to his friends.

He bought an Eiffel Tower keyring.

He visited art galleries and museums.

He saw the Mona Lisa.

The weather was warm and sunny.

The people were friendly.

He got up very early.

He went to bed very late.

He had a fantastic time.

He spoke to lots of French people.

He met an old friend from home.

He decided to return to Paris one day.

By Katherine Bilsborough

To Catch A Thief: Past simple and past

continuous practice.
Submitted by swif on 13 January, 2010 - 13:08

I use this activity as practice for using narrative tenses, particularly past simple and
progressive/continuous with pre-intermediate students. It is a very structured activity in
which students write a short newspaper article about a robbery.

Procedure

 Tell students they are going to write a newspaper article about a robbery in a public place.
 Elicit the kind of information the students think they would need to write the article and write
questions up on the board as they give you ideas. At this point the teacher formulates the
questions as the focus is on the students creating the content of the story and not an exercise
in grammar.
 Write these questions on one side of the board and leave them there as students will need
them again in stage 5 of this activity. Typical questions could be:

1.  
1. Where was the robbery?
2. When did it take place?
3. How many robbers were there?
4. Were they wearing disguises?
5. Were they armed?
6. How many robbers were there?
7. What did the workers and customers do?
 8. Was anybody injured?
9. What did the robbers take?
10. How did they get away?
11. Who called the police?
12. When did the police arrive?
13. Have the robbers been caught yet?

 Help students out with your own ideas if they are not very inspired at this point.

 In pairs or small groups ask students to answer each question using their imagination. Make
bilingual dictionaries available and move round the class assisting with vocabulary.

 Once the groups have the basic information for their story, you can discuss the organisation
of  the text. As this is a newspaper article, talk about how the first paragraph would contain a
summary of what the writer feels the reader would most like to know about the incident, and
the rest of the article would tell the story in full. Of course, the most important/interesting
facts may vary from story to story but would most likely be what the robbers took, whether
anyone was injured and whether the robbers have been caught. Get students to show their
plan by drawing a box for each paragraph and putting key words in. 

 Ask students to write their texts and tell them that they should focus on communicating their
story clearly and on using the past simple and past progressive/continuous correctly.  At pre-
intermediate level students can’t be expected to write a perfect newspaper article but by
giving them achievable aims within the task the teacher needs only mark the text against the
criteria given and will not need to correct every mistake as this could be very demotivating. 
Give students a time limit of about 15 to 20 minutes for this task.
 Students now swap round their finished texts with other groups.  The new group reads the
article and answers the questions on the board that were produced in stage 1 of this activity.

Follow-up Activity

 In open class ask students to talk about events that have been happening recently in the news.
You may want to ask them to choose a current event to talk about briefly in the next class
and, depending on your curriculum and the interest of the students, you could get students to
plan an article on a real news event in a future lesson.  Take in the finished articles. You can
correct the use of the past simple and progressive/continuous and give them a grade or
comment as to how clearly they told their story.

By Stuart Wiffin

Storylines
Submitted by veronateflteacher on 4 January, 2010 - 13:20

This is a speaking and listening communication activity which is aimed at pre-intermediate

students and above. It was developed to help students practise narrative tenses and structures.
The duration of the activity depends on the size of the class, but will take at least twenty
minutes for an average size class.
Procedure
Students form a ‘storyline’ chain where they pass and add part of a narrative to the next student in the
class. In this way, the students construct a simple group narrative.    

This activity can be approached in several ways.

 First you need to prepare a card or piece of paper for each student with a key word written on
it.
 Explain the task to your students - they must remember the story which is told them, relay it
to the next student in the storyline and add a sentence or two to continue the narrative,
including the key word you give them on a card or piece of paper.
 With small groups or slightly weaker groups, get the students to sit in a circle and do the
activity in the classroom.
 With larger, stronger groups, ask one student to remain in the classroom and invite the others
to wait outside until you ask them to re-enter the room. Now tell student A the beginning of
the story and give them a keyword card. Invite student B into the room. Student A passes the
story to student B with his/her addition to the narrative. Then invite student C into the room
and ask A to wait outside.
 Give students help and encouragement where appropriate in order to keep the activity going
and the story more-or-less on course.
 This is a communication-based activity so don’t worry too much about grammatical accuracy.
 Explain to the final student that they must find a satisfactory end to the story.
 At the end of the exercise, ask the last student to tell the whole story to student A, then ask
student A to tell the story to you…
 If you have access to a tape-recorder, tape student A and then invite feedback from the whole
group…

Story Beginnings

 ‘When Peter finally reached the top of the mountain, he couldn’t believe his eyes…’ 

 ‘Kate sat at her desk and turned on her computer. Then, something strange happened…’

 ‘It was a terrible night. Outside, there was a storm. It was nearly midnight when suddenly
there was a loud knock at the door…’

 ‘Amanda stared at the man. It was him! It was definitely the man she had seen on TV…’

 ‘Ben was having the best day of his life. It began with a phone call after breakfast…’

Follow-up activities
There are numerous ways of following or adding to this activity.

 With strong groups, go back through the group so that the story continues in reverse
sequence, finally ending with student A.
 Alternatively, arrange the students into small groups and ask them to work together to write
down the story in a way which is as grammatically accurate as possible...
 Alternatively, arrange your students into pairs or small groups, give them each a new
keyword card and then tell them they have fifteen minutes or so to write a short story
 containing the keyword. Get each pair to read their story to the class and then invite the class
to guess what the keyword was…

 By David Done

Vanishing Dialogue
Submitted by Derek Spafford on 19 December, 2009 - 19:04

This activity practises language of ordering food in a restaurant although this can be adapted
for any scenario. It's a great way to consolidate the language and recycle the vocabulary. It
also becomes very personalised when students create their own dialogues in the final stage.
As the drilling is done in groups it is non threatening and enjoyable.

The activity can be used with any level and any number of students. The procedure I have
suggested below is designed to be used with Primary students.

 Show a picture of two people in a restaurant. Elicit language and vocabulary to the picture.
You could do this as a mind map with different categories such as phrases, food vocabulary,
people, furniture, etc.

 Elicit a dialogue taking place between the people. Depending on how many you have in your
class and the size of your groups this could be 1 diner and 1 waiter/waitress or a family and 1
waiter/waitress. I would choose the group size first then build a dialogue with this amount of
people. Take into account the level of your learners and vary the length accordingly.

 Drill the dialogue. Mix it up with one side waiter/waitresses and one side the diners. Swap
roles and drill again. With young learners I like to change the pitch of my voice and add silly
voices to keep it lively and interesting.

 After the students are comfortable with the dialogue omit a word or phrase and drill again.
This time they have less of a written record and are required to remember the dialogue.

 Repeat the above stage until all the dialogue has gone.

 Now put the students in groups to practise. Monitor for pronunciation errors and correct as a
class.

 Put students in pairs to practise. This time you can monitor more effectively and pick up on
any individual errors learners may be making.

 Put students into groups and ask them to write a similar dialogue for themselves. Monitor and
check for language and pronunciation errors.

 Students could then act out their dialogues in front of the class.
Extension
If possible record the dialogues and play back. While students are listening they could
complete a worksheet and record what each student had to eat. This could also be done real
time with students controlling the dialogues of each other. The data collected could be used to
create a chart detailing the type of food students chose.

Written by Derek Spafford

When did you last...?

Submitted by swif on 2 December, 2009 - 16:31

This is a simple activity to set up and gives Elementary level students plenty of opportunity to
speak and practise using the past simple.

Preparation

 Write up on the board: When did you last go to a restaurant? (or a similar question which best
suits the age and culture of your students eg. ‘When did you last go the park?’ or ‘When did
you last go to the cinema?’). 

 Draw a line all the way down the board to the right of this in which you can write vocabulary
and phrases that students ask you for during the activity. 

 Throw the question open to the whole class and write up time phrases that students need in
your vocabulary part of the board eg. Last week, two weeks ago, in March, on my birthday
etc. 

 Ask students what other questions you could ask about this event eg. for the restaurant they
might say:
o  Which restaurant did you go to?
o Who did you go with?
o What did you eat?
o Did you like it?
o Did you have dessert?
o What did you talk about?
 Build up a list of as many questions as you can on the board.

Proceedure

 Once you have a good number of questions on the board  group students into two or threes
and ask them to ask and answer questions together. 
 Tell them they don’t need to write anything as the aim of this activity is speaking practice.
Monitor as the students speak but don’t interrupt. 
 Focus on students’ use of the past simple and make a note of any problems or mistakes.  As
students ask you for help with vocabulary and phrases write these up on the board in your
vocabulary section.
 Bring students back together after about 10 minutes and go through any difficulties that you
picked up with the use and form of the past simple during monitoring.
  Move students round to form new pairs or groups of threes and give each group another
‘When did you last…? Question.  Again you should choose these to suit your students but
they may include ‘go to the cinema?’  ‘go on holiday?’ ‘go shopping?’ ‘visit a relative?’. 
 Give students a time limit, say 5 or 10 minutes, depending on how easily they can work with
the target language, and ask them to write as many questions as they can think of for the
situation they‘ve been given.  The teacher moves round the groups helping and correcting  the
questions. Make sure all students in the group write the questions as they will need them later.
 Further semi-controlled speaking practice.
 Change students into new groups and tell them to ask their questions and this time to write
down the answers.  As in step 2 you can monitor and write up the vocabulary that students
need.
 At this stage students return to the group in which they wrote their questions and compare the
answers they received.  After a few minutes the teacher can go over any further past simple
matters that came up during monitoring.

Extension

 Every student now has a set of answers to the questions they wrote before.  They could use
these to write a short text in the past simple either in class or at home.

By Stuart Wiffin

An Interview with Sir Peter

Submitted by Anonymous on 24 November, 2009 - 16:34

Introduction
This activity is based on the real story of Merhan Karimi Nasseri, who found himself unable
to leave Charles de Gaulle airport in France, but became a popular subject for TV and
newspaper interviews. It is a pair-work speaking, listening, reading and writing exercise for
students who are at a good intermediate level or above. Time: at least an hour.    

Topic
Merhan Karimi Nasseri, in reality, was an Iranian who arrived in Charles de Gaulle airport in
France and for bureaucratic reasons, found himself unable to leave the airport, which became
his home for a number of years. His nickname at the airport was ‘Sir Alfred’ because he was
unfailingly polite. During his period in the airport, Merhan became a popular subject for TV
and newspaper journalists who came to interview him. The story later inspired Steven
Spielberg to make a movie based on his experience starring Tom Hanks: ‘The Terminal.’

Procedure    

 Give the students the background story of ‘Sir Peter,’ (worksheet A).
 Explain to the students that they are going to work in pairs. One student is a journalist,
the other ‘Sir Peter’.
 After the interview, the pair must work together to write a short article about ‘Sir
Peter’.
 The journalist has fifteen to twenty minutes to prepare questions (in note form) in
order to interview Sir Peter for their magazine or paper.
  Meanwhile, encourage Sir Peter to think about what life might be like for someone
stranded at a busy airport without very much money – where would they sleep?
Where would they buy food? How would they pass their time? How could they keep
in touch with their friends and family? Tell them to try and be as imaginative as
possible during the interview – there are no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ responses. They can be
as serious or light-hearted as they want.
 Monitor the journalists, giving help, correcting and making suggestions where
appropriate for some good questions for the interview.
 Give the students a good twenty minutes to conduct the interview, at least.
 Encourage journalists to make notes during the interview – these will be used as a
basis for the article about ‘Sir Peter’.
 Now tell the students that they have half an hour, more if you think they need it, in
order to write their article about ‘Sir Peter’. This part of the activity could well be
carried over to the next lesson, depending on the time available. At this stage, monitor
students writing, giving help with grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc where
appropriate.
 Students read out their article to the whole class. These could then be displayed in the
classroom.       

Follow-up activities

 This activity can be extended by re-pairing the students thus allowing journalists and
‘Sir Peters’ to change place.

 Additional writing practise could involve asking students in pairs to draft a letter from
Dan to the president of Argonia, explaining his predicament and asking for help.
 Role play: Again in pairs, ask students to imagine ‘Sir Peter’s’ first phone call from
the airport to his wife Karla, waiting at home in Argonia with their seven children!
 If you have internet access, get students to do some research on the real ‘Sir Peter’,
(Merhan Karimi Nasseri), and feedback to you. There is a reference to him on
Wikipedia!
 You could also think about watching part of the movie ‘The Terminal’, (Stephen
Spielberg), if you have east access to movies on dvd. Get students to critique the
movie.
 Class discussion: what would happen if all travel restrictions were lifted, thus
allowing people to travel freely around the world and live wherever they wanted?

By David Done

The phone rang - essay planning

Submitted by swif on 28 October, 2009 - 11:21

This idea comes from a short story by Raymond Carver called 'Put yourself in my shoes'. If
you can find it, it's a nice development after the activity to look at what Carver did with the
line. The first line is "He was running the vacuum cleaner when the telephone rang".
However, if you want to simplify it, you can change it to "He was watching TV when the
telephone rang." I like this activity because it encourages creativity, in a subtle way.

Preparation

 Ask the students to work in pairs and to make up a list of as many people as possible who
could be telephoning. Give them no more than 3 minutes for this. Some students will look
blank and need help, others will immediately launch into a list. If your class contains both
types of student (as most classes do!) then you'll need to take a couple of suggestions from the
faster students to help the slower ones.
 After the 3 minutes, ask the pairs how many ideas they've come up with, then ask each pair to
choose the best, that is, the one that will easily develop into an interesting story. Write these
ideas on the board and then get the students to select the best choice.

Procedure

 Ask a student to choose a letter at random, let's take M for example. Give the students 3 more
minutes to come up with another list of callers, all beginning with that letter. At first the
students tend to think that this will be too difficult but they usually come up with a good list,
for example, mother, mother-in-law, milkman, medical doctor, mad scientist, mathematician,
monkey, Mexican, model, Mr Matthews, Mike, mystic, etc. Encourage the students to be as
inventive as possible with the letter m, using it as a noun or an adjective or even a phrase.
 Ask the students to decide why the caller is calling.  For a change of focus you can do this
activity as a whole class.  Ask them to agree on one of the callers from the list and then repeat
the brainstorming process.  For example, if the students choose ‘mad scientist’ write up all the
possible reasons he or she could be calling, for example, he would like to buy one of your
bothers or sisters for a very high price for research that could save the human race, she meant
to call the prime minister to warn of an alien plot, he suspects you might be a superhero and
would like you to come down to the lab for tests, she has forgotten her key and wants to know
if you can let her in the building etc.  
 Finally students need to decide what the person who picks up the phone does in response to
the call.  Again, for a change of focus students could do this individually as they should be
very comfortable with the process and be able to work alone.  Ask each student to choose
their favourite reason the caller is calling and give them five minutes to note down as many
possible endings as they can think of, following the same procedure as in groups and whole
class.
 When the time is up get students into small groups to share their work and as a final round up
ask a group member to share one of the story endings in open class.

Extension
Ask the students to write it up for homework or in class. This should encourage any of your
students who say, "But I just don't know what to write!"

Tips
Finally, in the actual Carver story the caller is a wrong number. Occasionally a student will
suggest this as an idea and it’s nice to say, “That is how the story starts, how do you think it
could develop from there?” I think it shows an essay doesn’t have to be about bombs and
explosions to be interesting, and shows how spending a few minutes planning means the
story almost writes itself.
 
(Thanks to David Brining for telling me about Raymond Carver)
Story writing - creative thinking
Submitted by swif on 21 October, 2009 - 08:20

Writing stories is an exciting and creative activity and yet students often seem resistant to undertaking
this task. I think it is important to break the task down into small stages so students don’t get
discouraged, and place emphasis on the creative part.

Preparation

This is the last line of our story;

‘They walked away sadly, promising never to return again’

Before class, think up several examples of who ‘they’ could be and from where they are walking.  For
example;

They:  students  Where:  the last day of their language course in the UK

They:  aliens      Where:  the Earth

They:  football team  Where: after a match

They:  teenagers Where: a concert by their favourite band

They:  friends     Where:  a party at another friend’s house

Procedure 

 Giving the task purpose (this stage could be done in the students’ own language)
o Ask students what the purpose of writing a story is. Answer: to entertain
o Ask them for ways a writer can do this Possible answers: comedy, suspense,
mystery, a twist, romance, a moral

 Brainstorming for ideas/ creating the plot of the story (I) As a class. 
o Write the title of our story on the board.  Ask students to think silently who ‘they’
might be and where they are leaving.
o If they find this difficult you could give them one of your ideas.  Eg.  They:  students 
Where:  the last day of their language course in another country
o   Choose one of their suggestions and ask questions to get students developing the
idea: Eg. Where did they go? Why were they so sad when they left? What things went
wrong? Why will they never return?
o  The aim is to get lots of different suggestions for each question to get students being
as creative as possible.

  Brainstorming for ideas/ creating the plot of the story (II) In groups, with direction.
o  Divide students into groups of 4 or 5. 
o Each group chooses a different ‘they’ and ‘where’, either from earlier student
suggestions or your ideas.
 o Give them five minutes to come up with a story based on these.  Encourage the
groups to follow the same procedure as in step 2 and come up with lots of different
stories before choosing their favourite.
o The aim is creativity and a chance for students to use their imaginations. The time
limit is important to keep the activity moving.

 Whole class feedback

o  Ask students to share their favourite stories with the class.
o Before this activity begins, tell them that they will need to choose which one of the
other stories they like best and why - this will give students a good reason for
listening. 

 Extension

Take students back to the title you started with and discuss how many ideas came out of just
one line. Of course, you could now ask them to write the story either in class or as
homework, however, I would suggest leaving this activity at this point as the aim is to
exercise students’ creative side. During the task the students will have had to use a wide
range of vocabulary and I think this is challenge enough for any class. 

Stuart Wiffin, Teacher, France

Gap fill poems

Submitted by Derek Spafford on 2 October, 2009 - 16:43

I like to use this activity to introduce poetry into the classroom and to raise learners'
awareness of the beauty and fun to be had with poetry. It can also be used to practise learners'
pronunciation. I chose a poem titled ‘I wish my husband were online'. I chose this as it
contains a number of rhyming couplets. It is available free from the following website
http://freepoemsonline.blogspot.com/2008/02/i-wish-my-husband-were-online.html.

Preparation

 Choose a suitable poem. One that contains some rhyming couplets is ideal. The level and age
of your learners will determine the type and length of poem you will be choosing.
 Take out some of the rhyming couplets and write these words on a piece of card. Cut up the
words so one word is on a separate piece.
 Retype the words of the poem so it contains gaps where the rhyming couplets were.
 If you want to do this as a listening activity you could record the poem in advance.

Procedure

 Make students aware of rhyming and what ‘to rhyme' means. Give and elicit examples. Write
these on the board. Encourage learners to rhyme things with their name or hometown etc to
personalise the activity.
  Give each student one of the cut-up words.
 Students walk around and find their partner. This would be the person with a word that
rhymes with theirs.
 After they have found their partner they can write the words on the board. Make sure they
write the words in pairs.
 Give out the poem. Learners use the words on the board to fill in the gaps.
 Learners listen and check.
 Learners could then recite the poem to each other in groups.

Extension

 Learners could make a list of words that rhyme with the couplets
 You could have learners add their own words to the poem to create a new poem.
 You could use the poem as a springboard for discussion.

Written by Derek Spafford

First published in August 2008

The new student role-play

Submitted by TE Editor on 16 September, 2009 - 11:20

This is a role-play activity in which your students practise asking for and giving personal
details and directions.

Level: Elementary and above

Description
Role-play is a great way for students to try out their English. Most of my students love having
the chance to use their language in a realistic way, and often take the role-play much further
than I would have thought possible! The quieter students also come out of themselves, their
'new identities' giving them the confidence to speak.

In this role-play, one student is the receptionist of a language school in London and the other
is a new student. Each student has a 'role card' which details the information they need to find
out from their partner and also the answers that they will give to their partner.

The 'receptionist' needs to find out the name, age, telephone number etc. of the new student.
The 'new student' needs to find out the address and directions to the school from the nearest
train stop. The receptionist's role card has a simple map which they must describe to the new
student. Registration cards and blank maps are provided for students to complete with the
information they find out. (If photocopying is an issue, ask your students to use their own
notepads to jot down their answers rather than making these additional cards for them.)

Role cards 117k

Procedure
  Set the context for the role-play. You can do this by describing the situation, by telling an
anecdote, showing a picture or posing some discussion questions.
o Once the context is clear, I ask my students to brainstorm the type of information the
language school will need from the new student and what the new student will need
to know before she/he goes to the school. With lower levels, I extend this section by
getting the students to prepare the questions they will need to ask to find out this
information. I get the students to work on question form and pronunciation, with a
focus on sentence stress and intonation.

 Put the students in pairs. Explain the role cards. Do a quick demonstration with one or two
stronger students. Give out the cards.
o When doing this type of activity, I find it helps if you can photocopy the cards onto
different colour paper: for example, red for the receptionist and yellow for the
students. This helps me to quickly see who has which role, and to smoothly
reorganise pairings if I need to.
o Highlight to the students that this is a telephone conversation. I often extend this
section by getting my students to brainstorm the way we start and finish telephone
calls in English. This may sound too obvious, but, for example, in some languages
people introduce themselves with "I am _____", rather than "This is _____". You
could also introduce the idea of 'register' - the degree of politeness that would be used
in this conversation. For example, which of the following do you think is more
appropriate?
"Give me directions."
"Could you tell me how to get to the school, please?"
o Put the students in pairs. For this role-play, I ask them to sit back-to-back. Why? So
they can't see each other (or read each other's role cards) - this is a telephone call,
after all! If they have trouble hearing their partner, rather than turning round, the
students should ask their partner to repeat and/or speak up, as they would if they were
really talking on the telephone.
o All role-plays work better with props. Even simple props like cardboard phones will
help students 'get into role', and when they do get into role, they invariably try harder,
perform better and have more fun.

 Set a time limit. As the students do the role-play, walk around and listen. If I want to do some
specific language work, I note down some of the problems with language they have and use
these for a 'correction slot' afterwards.

 When most of the students have finished, call time. Your students can then compare the
information they have written down with that on their partner's role card to see how well they
did.

 If there is time, ask your students to swap roles. They could also swap partners for more
variety. The 'new student' card from the first role-play can be used again. Give the
receptionists the 'receptionist role card, version 2' so that they have new information to give
about the school.

As a language follow up, I get students to self-correct the errors I noted down while they
were doing the role-play. This can be done in pairs, groups or as a whole class. Don't only
focus on language use though. Get your students to think about what it was like 'talking on
the telephone' and any difficulties this posed e.g. not being able to use gestures to help
explain what they were saying. I also try to encourage my students to talk about themselves
as much as possible; for example, their experiences of different language courses or if they
would like to go to London to study English.

By Emma Pathare

The holiday maze

Submitted by TE Editor on 26 August, 2009 - 15:20

This is a reading and speaking activity. Students make decisions in pairs or groups with the
aim of going on a successful holiday. It is based on a 'maze' principle, which gives students
different options and a variety of different holiday outcomes. There isn't one 'correct' answer
- different groups find themselves going on different holidays - so you can use the activity
several times with the same class.

It is an excellent, fun way to practise the 'functional' language of agreement and

disagreement, suggestion and negotiation, as well as specific language relating to holidays, in
a genuinely 'communicative' activity.

It can be used with any level from pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate and beyond.

Maze activity 62k pdf

Procedure

 Set the context for your students. The students are going on holiday together and want to have
the best time possible. You can set the context by describing the situation, telling an anecdote,
showing a picture or posing some discussion questions. I find that students love to talk about
their experiences - ask them about times they have been on holidays with friends. Get them to
talk about problems they had and things they enjoyed.

 When the context has been established, put the students in groups of 2 to 5 students. The
activity can be run as a whole-class activity with you using one set of cards. The students ask
you for the card they have chosen after each discussion. You can also run the activity as
independent group work, with a set of cards for each group. The important thing is to
encourage as much discussion as possible.

 Students listen to or read what is written on the first card. They must then discuss the different
options and come to an agreement about what to do. They then read the next card until they
reach a conclusion and find out if they had a successful holiday or not. It is absolutely vital
that the students really discuss each option and its possible implications; if they don't, they
will finish very quickly and will not have had the speaking practice that the activity is
intended to provide.

 Your role: walk around and listen to the groups. If groups are not really discussing much, ask
questions about their reasons for their decisions and prompt them to discuss more. Before you
start the activity, think carefully about how to group the students. How can you best
encourage speaking?
Especially at lower levels, it can be a good idea to pre-teach vocabulary which you know the
students will need for the activity. Read through the cards and make a list of words or phrases
that you think your students may not know, especially 'topic' vocabulary (i.e. holidays).
Before the activity starts, pre-teach these words.

It can really help the flow of conversation if students are confident in using functional
language. In this activity, students will be discussing, negotiating and making decisions. They
may also be arguing, disagreeing and changing their minds. These expressions may be useful

 'I think we should . . .'

 'That's a good idea but . . .'

 'What about . . .'

 'Let's . . .'

 'I don't agree with . . .'

 'I've changed my mind.'

 Emma Pathare

The soap opera

Submitted by TE Editor on 17 August, 2009 - 09:09

In this activity students create a profile for a group of people and imagine their relationships
to each other. They then construct a soap opera based around the characters and write a scene
from the soap opera. This activity can be completed in one lesson or divided across a number
of lessons if you feel your students need more support and correction.

Preparation
Download copies of the photographs here or cut some of your own out of a magazine. You
could give out magazines and scissors to students and ask them to cut out a number of people
who they think look interesting.

Pictures of people 339k zip

© All images are copyright Chris Tribble, King's College, London University and used with
his kind permission.

Procedure

 Put your students into groups of about 4 people, then give each group a copy of the pictures.
  Ask the students to try to imagine who the people are and what they are like. This might be
easier for some students if you stick the pictures onto a sheet of paper and then write the
headings for the information you want at the side (e.g. Name, age, occupation, habits,
hobbies, character etc)

 Once they have done this ask them if they know what a soap opera is. Try to get some
examples of ones that they watch.

 Next ask them if they can think of things that most soap operas have in common (e.g. heroes,
heroines, villains, drama – usually based around some kind of setting / workplace, etc.)

 Next tell the students that all of the pictures they are holding are of characters from the same
soap opera. Ask them to decide what the relationships between the people are and what role
each of them has within the soap opera. Try to get them to decide what kind of setting the
soap opera takes place in (e.g. in an office, on a ranch, in a hotel etc.)

 Next tell the groups that they should write a short scene involving as many of their characters
as possible. You may well need to help out and input language for this, so be sure to monitor
closely.

 Lastly, if your students are confident enough, ask them to choose characters and act out the
scene from their soap opera. You could video this and let them watch their performance or
you could just take in the scripts and help to correct them.

 Nik Peachey, Freelance teacher trainer, Writer, Materials designer, Morocco

Anna's wet day out (copyright dude)

Submitted by TE Editor on 23 July, 2009 - 16:42

Planning a simple composition

This activity trains young learners to plan a very simple story by looking at the brainstorming
process prior to writing, then allowing them to select ideas, and guiding them to the actual
writing of the story through a clearly staged plan.

Preparation
Find a picture of the hero of your story in a magazine or on the internet, big enough for your
teaching situation.

Procedure

Stage 1: Brainstorming

 Write the title 'Anna's wet day out' at the top of the board. Check students understand the
meaning.
 Divide your board into four quarters and title these: Anna, Day out, What happened and The
end.
  Show students the picture and ask the following questions: How old is she? Where is she
from? What does she like doing in her free time? write down all the suggestions in the part
entitled Anna.
 Tell students Anna is going on a day out. Again brainstorm ideas, guiding students using the
ideas they gave in Anna, for example, if they said she likes going to the park ask them to give
concrete ideas such as a park they know and who she went with. Again, write down as many
ideas as time allows.
 Tell students Anna got wet on her day out and ask them how this happened. Guide them using
as many of the ideas in Day out as you have time for eg. how did she get wet at the park? Did
she fall in the pond? Why? Was she running away from a scary dog? etc.
 By now you should have several possible stories on the go. Move on to the The end box and
continue to ask for ways for the various stories to end, get some ideas but don't write anything
in the box. The students will have the opportunity to finish the story themselves.

Stage 2: Think about your audience

Establish that the aim of a story is to entertain. Ask students how they would like to do this.
Do they want their story to be funny? scary? exciting?

Stage 3: Selection of ideas - story plan

Ask students to copy the grid from the board and then in each part to choose and copy just the
information they want to include in their story. Give them time and assistance to fill in the fourth part
'The end' as we left this blank in Stage 1.

Stage 4: Story feedback

Ask students to tell their stories in small groups. Each group chooses one they like to share with the
class.

Take students' plans in and mark them to show you consider the plan itself to be important
and to give them any advice you think is needed.

Stage 5: (Optional)
Students choose a story from their group and write a first draft in the following class. Once you have
corrected this, students then work alone and each complete a final draft, perhaps with illustrations if
you feel this would be motivating. If story writing is Important in the students’ curriculum you can
repeat stages 1 to 4 with three or four other titles so students build up a number of plans. You can then
ask them to choose one to write the story. Their story ideas should improve greatly with practice and
the resulting story should be a better one.

Stuart Wiffin, Teacher, France

Chain story telling
Submitted by TE Editor on 22 July, 2009 - 14:16

In this speaking activity the students tell personal stories which are prompted by pictures. The
activity is performed as a mingle.

 Cut up cards of different objects, activities, animals, etc. selected randomly.

 Place the cards scattered on the floor in the middle of the classroom.

 Tell the students to pick up a card from the floor which they think makes them remember one
of the following:
(a) a memorable event in their lives
(b) a positive or negative past or recent experience or
(c) a story about a friend/family member/acquaintance/etc that they would like to share with
others.

 Tell the students that they must find another in the class and tell them what the picture makes
them remember and listen to the other person’s story too.

 Each student must tell their story for about one to two minutes only.

 Students then must exchange pictures and find another student to talk to.

 Emphasise that they must ask the name of the person they were talking to before they move
on to talk to another one.

 Students must then talk to another student and tell him/her the story of the person they last
talked to.

 Students swap pictures again and move on to talk to someone reporting the story they’ve just
listened to.

 Round the activity off by asking individual students to report to the class the interesting things
they’ve learned about other people in class.

Arizio Moreira, Hamilton, New Zealand