Tag Archives: teenagers
Language patterns & the UK Linguistics Olympiad
Who’s been in a language class where you were either frustrated by the slowness of others to see patterns, or frustrated by not being able to keep up because you hadn’t yet learnt how to see the patterns? (This frustration actually put me off going to language classes and I ended up reading things like […]
Developing answers
Do you find your students sometimes struggle to develop their responses to prompts for Speaking exams? I used the “My Place In The World” idea to help students to broaden their thinking. (This could also be used to develop ideas for essays.) First I asked them to consider this question: Why is education important? and […]
Gallery Grammar Goals
My IELTS students are definitely getting to grips with the writing tasks for IELTS, but Grammatical Resource and Accuracy is one criterion they often score low in. The marking codes I use most often with this group are s-v (subject-verb agreement), T (tense), p (punctuation) and s. or pl. (singular or plural). The reasons for […]
Forum Theatre for building confidence and fluency
You’re a 13-year-old school student. You’re away from your home and your family. How do you tell your host family that you don’t like the food? Perhaps your teacher can help you work it out with this Forum Theatre style activity. I had intended to have written about this and more by now, but I threw […]
This is a…
What is it if it’s not a pipe? Could it be an elvish golf club, a tiny unfinished old-fashioned periscope, a fancy straw for drinking ale, part of a faucet, a teensy weensy watering can? Course it could, if you can forget the boring, sensible, conventional use and think sideways. This little warmer requires students […]
A low-prep, low-tech, effective game for revision
In this activity, pairs or small groups of students compete against other groups to answer written questions. It could be called a low tech version of a Socrative quiz. It’s most easily done with a whiteboard and projector but it could certainly be done with a blackboard instead. You just need a list of 8-12 […]
Wooden Spoon Speculations
I found this game on a party games website sometime a couple of years ago. It’s a guessing game that works well in a class of students who are fairly comfortable with each other and have a good sense of humour. Students can use it to practise speculative language. Equipment needed: 2 wooden spoons; one […]
One Voice
This is a quick, no-prep warmer which can really help students to settle in to class and concentrate. I have a class of adult FCE students who find listening exercises quite difficult. Added to that, their class is at the end of the day so they’re often quite tired. I decided to find a warmer […]
Me too!
This is a great speaking activity that can be used as a warmer or as a short speaking activity to practise a grammar point or some vocabulary or anything. I got it from colleague in a sharing session after the ACEIA conference, where it was one of the activities presented by Teresa Bestwick (see her […]
What’s in the stocking?
This is a Christmas activity which can be used to practise vocabulary (lower levels) and vocab and speculative language (higher levels). Put some items in a stocking, seal it, and give it to the students to pass round, have a good old feel and tell their partner what they think might be inside. “As far […]
A Hive of Activities 