MAKING TEACHING FUN!

Teaching is one of the most fun and noble careers one could have. Teachers have the
power to influence and touch students lives profoundly. To acquire a language, students need
many opportunities to practice and apply what they have learned in class. The English language
classroom can often pose challenge in this area. Practicing a new language can also be
intimidating, especially for students with a high affective filter or negative emotional factors that
may interfere with language learning.
A great way to give students meaningful opportunities to apply their learning and lower
their affective filter is to make learning fun! When teachers use activities that make learning
engaging and fun, students are more willing to participate and take risks. Having fun while
learning also helps students retain information better because the process is enjoyable and
memorable.
The inclusion of games as an integral part of any language syllabus provides an
opportunity for intensive language practice, offers a context in which language is used
meaningfully and as a means to an end and acts as a diagnostic tool for the teacher, highlighting
areas of difficulty. Last but not least, one of the most important reasons for using games is simply
that they are immensely enjoyable for both teachers and students.

Why using games?

Games can help activate students and keeping students active is vital because teachers
will never be able to teach students anything unless they can get them to participate in their own
learning process. Also games help students build relationships and create a friendly and positive
atmosphere. Games can be a very good way to practice real life situations, offering students the
possibility to play different roles. Games can be used with students of all ages, with different
teaching methods, thus creating diversity.
Games can be divided into different categories: whole class games, group games, pair-
work games, communicative games, grammar games, listening games, reading games, speaking
games, writing games, word/story/question games.
 MAKING READING FUN
Students learning English can have different reading abilities. Strong readers are more
likely to enjoy reading in class, but those who find reading more difficult may not enjoy it as
much. Planning activities that incorporate peer support and interactive tasks, and that can be
adjusted for different reading levels can help make reading enjoyable for all learners in your
English classes.
Stages in reading activities:
pre-reading activities: using the title to predict the content; prediction from pictures;
what I know/ what I want to know technique.
while-reading activities: match the headlines with the text; give a headline to each
paragraph; completing a grid; jumbled paragraphs; missing paragraphs.
post-reading activities: role-playing; writing a letter to the character; writing the
characters diary; writing the text from a different perspective; suggesting another ending;
talk shows/interviews/articles.

A few suggestions..
Bang! Materials: Small piece of paper, shoe box or coffee can. Write words on pieces of
paper and fold them in half (sight words, vocab, blends etc.). Also add a few cards that say
"BANG!". Students take turns picking cards and if they read the word correctly they get to
keep the word. If they draw a BANG! card they yell BANG! and then return all their cards
(except the BANG! card) to the can/box. Very simple but the kids love it and there are many
variations for the game!
Label It. This works well with newcomers of all ages who need an introduction to basic
vocabulary. As long as the learners are able to identify beginning letter sounds, they should
be able to do this activity. To familiarize my students with names of objects found in the
classroom, I label everything with an index card that has the item's name on it. Then I have
them repeat what I read as they point to the item. The next day, I remove the cards and go
through them one at a time and we place them on the correct item together. The third day, I
let them label whatever they can on their own. I continue this for a few days. When they are
able to independently label most of the items, I surprise them by having them labeled
incorrectly. Then they have to straighten out the mess. You can adapt this to any noun-based
vocabulary list (e.g. types of foods, body parts, parts of a room in a house, animals, etc.).
 Reading Board Scramble. This activity encourages students to read words or short phrases
quickly. T writes words or phrases on the blackboard in a scramble here and there, but low
enough that the Students can reach. Examples include "elephant", "I love chocolate", "My
sister's name is Mary", etc. Have two teams and call out a word / phrase. The person that is
able to find and circle it first wins a point for their team. Even more challenging- have four
teams all looking for the same word. The kids just love it.
Rhythmic Reading. This activity is fast-paced and lively, and improves Ss' word
recognition, speed, and confidence in reading. Choose a reading passage (one page if using a
basic text, maybe one paragraph if using a more advanced one). Start a rhythm (clapping or
tapping on your desk). Choose one student to start. Each student must read one sentence (or
word, if you want), exactly on the beat and pronounced correctly. Immediately after the first
student finishes, the next one starts with the next sentence, and so on. If someone misses a
beat or stumbles over words, they lose a 'life' or they are 'out'. If you use the 'out' method, it
isn't so bad, because the 'out' students help to keep the beat and follow along. In my
experience, all students, whether 'out' or not, have focused intently on the reading - waiting
like hawks to hear someone's mistake. Of course you can vary the tempo, making it much
easier or much harder. This can also be played as a team game (which team can make it to the
end of the passage, on beat, with no stumbles or mispronunciations?).
Tic Tac Toe Read. Draw a basic tic tac toe grid on the board with new vocabulary words
written in each block. One student from each team is called up and must draw the picture of a
word underneath. If the drawing is correct they can put a cross or circle in the block. If the
drawing is wrong, the drawing is erased and the block remains open for another go. The team
with three correct drawings in a row wins.
Word Recognition Game. Write some words the Students have learned in previous lessons
on some cards (postcards are ideal). Have all the students stand at one end of the room and
the T in the middle. Hold up one card and students come forward and whisper the word in
the T's ear. If correct they can go over to the other side of the room. Students can have as
many guesses as possible.

MAKING LISTENING FUN

English language learners spend a lot of time listening, whether in classroom scenarios or
the real world. Teachers know that being able to listen and comprehend content is a very
important skill for students learning English. This skill is necessary not only to follow classroom
instruction, but also to grasp important messages and information from what they hear.
Stages in listening activities:
pre-listening activities: what words students think they will find in the text (give a list for
students to choose); predicting the content; the first words that come up when listening to
the title.
while-listening activities: information transfer (grids, charts, lists); multiple choice;
matching; yes/no questions; detecting mistakes from a listening passage; jigsaw listening.
post-listening activities: role plays; interviews; articles; problem solving; imagine that;
drawings.

A few suggestions.
Listen and draw a story. The teacher reads or makes up a story and as the students listen
they draw the different scenes. You can help them by explaining which scene to draw.
This can be done individually or in small groups on larger paper. This really helps you to
see if the students understand and they will often ask questions if they dont understand
(because theyll be so keen to draw the picture!)
Blindfold walk. This is really fun. Teach: go forward, go backwards, (3) steps, turn
right/left. Then place a blindfold on a student and direct him/her around the room to
eventually pick up a flashcard or object (e.g. Go forward 3 steps, turn right, go forward
5 steps, now go backwards 2 steps, turn left, etc.). Finally, have students work in pairs
one blindfolded and one giving directions.
Listening with flashcards. Scatter a lot of flashcards that students have already leaned
around the room and have the students sit on floor. Make up a story and incorporate all
of the flashcard pictures as you say the flashcard word the student nearest that card
must touch it. For example, if students have learned lots of animal vocab the story could
start Once upon a time there was a farmer who had some cows (touch), sheep (touch)
and pigs (touch). One day he was surprised to see lots of new animals on his farm. Next
to the gate was a zebra (touch) and in the pond was a hippo (touch ). etc
Secret Message. Make two teams and have each stand in a line (parallel with each
other). Take two students from the front of each line outside the classroom and whisper a
sentence to them (e.g. Tonight it is going to rain and tomorrow it is going to be sunny).
 Then the students come back and whisper the sentence to the next S, who in turn
whispers it to the next, and so on down the line. The student at the end either writes the
correct sentence on the board or says the sentence to the teacher (depending on the level
of the class). Points are awarded: 2 points for a perfect sentence, 1 point for nearly
perfect and a bonus point if the team finished first and got the sentence right. Then do it
again with two new students.
Listening dialogs. Before class, prepare some dialogs based on the lesson theme. Also,
prepare some comprehension questions based on the dialogs. In class, have two students
read the dialog and the other students have to listen and then answer the questions. In
higher level classes, make groups and give each group 15-20 minutes to write a dialog
and questions (questions on a large sheet of paper). Then each team reads their dialogs
while the rest of the class answers the questions which have been taped to the blackboard.
Number / Word bingo. Playing bingo requires students to listen carefully. You can use
either numbers or words that they have been learning. Creating the bingo sheets and
words takes a bit of time but once done can be used with other classes, time and time
again.
Spelling Messenger. Put students in teams of three. S1 is given a word on a piece of
paper and mustnt show it to his/her team mates. He or she stands at the end of the room
furthest from the board facing the wall. S3 is at the board facing the board. S2 acts as
the messenger. S1 whispers the first letter to S2 who then runs and whispers it to S3, who
in turn writes it on the board. S2 goes back and forth until the word is written on the
board. All the teams compete they have different words but all with the same number
of letters. The first team to complete the word correct wins a point.

MAKING SPEAKING FUN

Getting students to speak in English class is often a challenge. Many learners hesitate to
talk in class because they have a lot of anxiety about making mistakes, especially in front of their
peers. For this reason, it is important for teachers to plan activities that encourage learners to
interact and relieve the pressure they often feel to speak perfectly.
 Activities to promote speaking:
free-speaking activities: role plays; problem solving; picture describing; guessing
activities; reporting.
communicative activities: picture difference; ranking tasks; pyramid discussion; board
games; reaching a consensus; controversial topics; debates; story reconstruction; real-
play; simulation.

A few suggestions.

Taboo Variations. Create a PowerPoint presentation with each slide containing a

noun. Have one student come to the front of the room and sit with his/her back to the
PowerPoint. The students in the class should take turns describing the words for the
student in the front of the room to guess.

Descriptive Drawing Activity. Pair up the students and give them each a picture face
down. They must describe the picture for their partner to draw.

Comic Strip Descriptions. Give each student a portion of a comic strip. Without
showing their pictures to one another, the students should attempt to describe their image,
and put the comic strip into the correct order. After about ten minutes, the students can
predict the order, show one another their portion, and see if they were correct!

"Secret" Word. Students are given a random topic, and a random word completely
unrelated to the topic. The student must hide the word in their speech, without the other
students in the class guessing their "secret" word. The other students in the class must
listen carefully to the speech, in an attempt to discover the secret word.

Debates. Give each student a piece of paper with agree written on one side, and
disagree on the other side. Read aloud a controversial statement, and have each
students hold up his/her paper stating whether they agree or disagree. Choose one student
from each side to explain his/her position and participate in a short debate.
 Impromptu Speaking. Split the class into two teams, and use a list of impromptu
speaking topics. Have each student choose a number, and respond to the statement
without preparation. The student must continue speaking for 45 seconds when the teacher
calls out "stop." As the student is speaking, the other team listens for any hesitation,
grammatical mistakes or vocabulary mistakes. If the other team can correctly identify an
error, they get a point.

Desert Island Activity. Give each student a piece of paper and tell him or her to draw an
item. Any item. Tell the students that they have been stranded on a desert island, and only
half of the class can survive and continue to inhabit the desert island. The student's goal is
to convince the class that they should survive. The hard part is that the only thing they
have is an item that was drawn a few minutes earlier by a classmate on the piece of paper.

Storytelling Activity. Bring four students to the front of the classroom. Three students
should sit down in a row, and one of the students should stand behind them acting as a
controller. The controller should have a stack of cards in his hand containing nouns. The
controller will hand a noun to one of the three students who will start to tell a story. The
student will continue telling the story until the controller decides to hand another noun to
another student who will then take over the story.

Two Truths, One Lie. Each student should write three facts about themselves on a piece
of paper. Two of the facts should be the truth, and one should be a lie. Students read
aloud the facts, and give the other students a chance to question them and decide which
statement is a lie.

True/False Storytelling. Give each student a piece of paper with either the word true
or false. Each student should tell the class a story, and the class must guess whether the
story is the truth, or a lie. To add to the activity, you can allow the other students to
question the student telling the story.

I Have Never All students in the class should start holding five fingers in the air (this
number can be adjusted depending on how many students are in the class). The student
 who begins the activity will tell the class one thing that he/she has NEVER done. The
students who have done that activity should put a finger down, and tell the class a story
about this activity.

MAKING WRITING FUN

For students learning English writing can be a great way to express oneself, explore
interests and communicate opinions. However, writing can also cause anxiety about grammar
spelling or making mistakes. Some students enjoy writing and some find it challenging or have
difficulty thinking of topics to write about.
Stages in writing activities:
pre-writing activities: brainstorming; prompts (pictures, songs, written prompts);
who/what/when/where/why/how technique.
while-writing activities: revising; self-editing; fill in blanks; picture-based story;
post-writing activities: re-read the story; repots/ads/messages/journals; change the
beginning/the ending; write a story from a different point of view

A few suggestions.

The Simple Paragraph. When you break the paragraph into smaller
elements, your students will see that four to six sentences do not have
to be overwhelming. The first element of a paragraph is the topic
sentence. This sentence gives the reader the main point of the
paragraph. The last sentence of a paragraph, when it stands alone, is a
concluding sentence. It gives some final thoughts about the topic. In
between are two to four sentences that expand the idea, give
examples, or argue a point. For example, a simple paragraph about fall
might look like this. Note the use of color words and fall vocabulary.
Fall is a beautiful season. (introductory) Green leaves change to red,
orange and yellow. People use brightly colored pumpkins and gourds
as decorations. The sky is blue, and the wind is soft. (supporting) I
enjoy fall in the U.S. (concluding).
 Postcards. For so many students, studying English means
travelling overseas. For these students, every day is a chance to
experience something new. Postcards follow a standard format that can
give your students practice with the simple past or present progressive
tenses. They are also a great way to apply vocabulary about vacation
or geography. Standard postcards have five simple parts. The greeting,
a sentence about where you are, one or two sentences about what you
are doing or have done, a closing, a signature.

Emails. Today we live in a world filled with technology, and no

technology is more popular than emails. They are shorter and
more informal than writing personal letters. If your students have email
addresses either through the school or personal ones, have them write
you a short email for homework or to ask questions before the next
test. You can also email your students a simple question and have
them answer it as part of their homework. The topic doesnt have to be
special or complicated.

Memo. Memos follow a certain format; they must include lines for to,
from, date and subject. Memo bodies are often very short; even two or
three sentences is enough for a memo. Review the standard memo
format with your students, and if you like show them how to use a
template via their word processing program. Then have students write
a memo announcing a team meeting, alerting their coworkers of an
audit, describing a new product or any other subject that could be
related to their business.

A Thank You Note. Hand written notes are few and far between in
todays culture, but almost everyone appreciates receiving
one. And if we think for just a few minutes, most of us can name
something and someone we are thankful for. Your beginning students
should be able to write a simple thank you note, and you can teach
them this pattern to do it. It only takes familiarity with the simple
present and the simple future to write this type of note.