Tag Archives: vocabulary
Paraphrasing activities & resources
Practising paraphrasing is so important for our students: it requires them to know vocabulary and to manipulate structures successfully. Doing it in pairs or groups means they have to be explicit about the process, further advancing their confidence and control. If you can name it, you can tame it! It is of course a skill […]
Fortune teller revision activity
This lesson idea can be used with kids* to revise 3 sets of vocabulary, spelling and grammatical structures. It’s a fun task, they get to make something and then play with it afterwards. Stealth learning! First,get the students to think about the vocabulary you want them to use. A board race is a good idea because then you […]
One way to introduce a new vocab set
This is a different way to introduce a new vocab set to introduce to your students. I learnt it from my tutor on my CELTA course. I used it recently with my 11-year-olds and it worked really well. I think it would work with older students and higher levels too. They get a chance to […]
Text summary and analysis
This is a great way to get Proficiency students (although it could be adapted for Advanced or FCE students) reading, finding useful vocabulary in the text and sharing it with each other. I got it from the inspiring Elspeth Pollock who gave a talk on teaching CPE students in Seville in February. She reminded us that […]
Class poem
This simple activity could be done with almost any level to practise adjectives (and perhaps comparatives) and give the class a sense of group. It will also result in something you can put on the wall. I found it in a book called Group Dynamics In The Language Classroom by Zoltan Dorynei and Tim Murphey. […]
Bucket
You don’t actually need a bucket for this activity. You could use a basket, a box, an envelope, a mug, etc. It’s a game taken from one of my major sources of inspiration – improvencyclopedia – and is a great way to practice vocabulary with higher levels. Students win points for using new vocab (with […]
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 […]
Pelmanism for paraphrasing
This activity combines paraphrasing skills with a children’s memory game and can help students practise Sentence Transformation exercises the likes of which appear in the Cambridge exams. It takes a bit of preparation but it’s worth it (and you can reuse it). It appears in my resources thanks to Louisa Cristo who shared it at […]
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 […]
All I want for Christmas is… Now with elementary YL version too!
Everyone loves presents. But what’s the one thing you REALLY want? And can you make a good case for it to Santa Claus? This lesson involves some Christmas vocab, open-cloze, listening to a song, pronunciation and speaking and culminates with giving a convincing speech to Santa Claus about the one thing you really want for […]
A Hive of Activities 