Do Your ESL Activities:
Have These 4
Ingredients?
Esl activities are supposed to help students learn English so they
can use it. Now, reading and writing can help with this, but
I
feel that listening and speaking are the master skills that underlie
them.
To help my students with listening and speaking, I have four
ingredients in my lessons.
The first ingredient is repeating.
Much of language learning is memorizing, and repetition is
essential. Do you haave activities that help the students
repeat
the target language, so they can hear it many times, and say it many
times?
Next is movement.
Movement in a room creates social dynamics and language is a
social phenomenon. When students move they become more aware
of
their environment - a sort of heightened sensitivity, if you
will
- that increases their perceptive skills. The input is
channeled
straight to the brain. Also, we get lots more oxygen to help
us
think better. Finally, it is just plain more fun.
When we
get up to do an esl activity (as opposed to sitting down), I can see
many more smiles.
Like a child, we can learn a lot by listening.
Unfortunately, it is easy to start listening and then give up
soon because, well, simply, we don't understand it. And we
don't
have to listen. We can change that by having activities with
question and answer so that students need to listen to the question, or
perhaps another students prior answer to conclude their part
successfully.
Hand in hand with the listening is the speaking
component, which is the fourth ingredient. Let the students
interact with each other, and exchange information. It
doesn't
always have to be deep and meaningful if the target language is
challenging.
Let's take a look at an example of an
esl activity the incorporates these four ingredients. The students
stand in a circle with a ball. They pass the ball around
asking,
"What time do you ~?" and answering each other. The
~ may
be derived from cards (flashcards) on a table a previously brainstormed
list on the board, or just out of thei heads, spontaneously (most
difficult, but best practice). They have to listen to each
other,
speak, they are moving and repeating (repeating listening and repeating
speaking). This is a great activity for about 3-4 minutes.
Have fun creating more fun and effective esl activities!
Isaiah
Verb
List
1. Take after: resemble
somebody:
to look or behave like somebody else, especially within the same family
2. Cut it out: stop something
annoying: to stop doing something that is annoying somebody
3. Break into: enter building
forcibly: to enter a building or place forcibly and usually illegally
4. Run over: knock somebody
down
with vehicle: to hit somebody or something with a vehicle while driving
it
5. Cut off: isolate somebody or
something: to separate a person, group, or place from usual
communication or contact
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