TEC2018 Mmaterial

Teaching English to Children
TESOL Canada- 2018

TEACHING YOUNG LEARNERS
REMEMBER
• Start early
• Make it fun
• Make it holistic
• Encourage life-long skills
How children learn

Children between four and twelve years old are very different as language learners, so this
month we are looking how children learn at different stages of development and how activities
in the classroom need to address their cognitive, motor, language and social development. The
age groups will be grouped as:
4 to 6 year-olds 7 to 9 year-olds 10 to 12 year-olds
Obviously children do not all fit neatly into categories and their development will depend on their
personality, maturity and previous learning experiences. You will no doubt recognise how your
own students fit the descriptions.
4 – 6 year olds
Characteristics Implications Need
Pre-school or just Not used to classroom Ø Training in class routines

beginning school conventions e.g. listening to teacher
Limited motor skills Clumsy control of pen / to develop motor control

scissors etc e.g. colouring, copying
Learn holistically whole child needs opportunities to move, sing,

stimulation play, explore, touch etc
Cannot distinguish Cannot analyse Exposure to chunks* of

between different parts language language
of language e.g. chants, stories,
classroom language
Limited reading/writing Introducing reading/ Lots of listening, speaking

skills in L1 writing in English activities
Fun introduction to English
letters and words
See no need to Students use L1 Reasons to speak English

communicate in English exclusively e.g. games, chants
Love stories, fantasy Bored with many topics Stories, fantasy, fun
* chunks of language = words that naturally come together e.g. ‘thank you very much’, ‘glass of
water’, ‘have a nice day’ – that are easily learnt, repeated and do not need analysis
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7 – 9 year olds
Beginning to be logical and Can see patterns, aware of Opportunities to experiment

analytical language e.g. making up own chants
Asking questions Need answers Freedom to express

themselves and learn more
than language
Reading and writing still Still need support and help Practice and success
minimal in L1 oriented activities
Still have problems sharing Group activities not always Teacher to guide them and
successful chances to work alone
Developing confidence to Students will have views on Chance to state opinions

express themselves what they want to do / talk
about
Developing knowledge of Know more than we often Chances to use what they
the world around them give them credit for know
10 – 12 year olds
Longer attention span Greater range of activities Opportunities to engage in

possible in class tasks that require focus and
commitment
Knowledge of the world More topics can be Stimulation

growing addressed e.g. information from
internet or cross-curricular
Taking learning more Can be given responsibility Chances to be independent

seriously
Still children Have need for security and Teacher sensitive to their
pleasure needs and moods
More cooperative with Can do more group work Variety of grouping in class
peers i.e. work on own, in pairs,
in group, as class
Intellectual, motor and Can be challenged more Activities that challenge

social skills developing them
Developing own learning Children won’t all react in Chance to personalise their
strategies the same way to the same learning experience
task/topic
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Beginning Reading and Writing with Young Children

(For all children (around 5–7 years old) learning English as a second or foreign language,
especially those whose Mother Tongue alphabet is not Roman)
When to start
Start reading and writing with 5–7 year olds (or older, if they are just starting to learn English).
Young children are wonderful processors of new information and in my experience can learn to
read and write quickly, if well motivated. They must enjoy the process and be in a positive, fun,
success-oriented learning environment.
Before introducing letters
Consider how children learn their mother tongue.
Begin by teaching children to recognize, understand and produce the spoken word through
games, songs and stories. Allow them to hear plenty of English from you, so try to maximize
your English and minimize Mother Tongue in the classroom (you can also use videos, tapes,
songs etc) so they become accustomed to the sounds of English. Encourage them to speak
English by repeating you, joining in chants and songs and responding to simple questions. This
foundation is vital to make meaningful links to the sound system of English. Learning
sounds and letters without understanding any words is a purely mechanical and potentially off-
putting experience for them. Young children will quickly learn English words if you introduce
them with a picture that clearly shows the meaning or you can point to the object in the
classroom e.g. chair, door, window.
Introducing letters
It is possible to introduce letters after only a few hours of English classes as long as the
children have already been introduced to English vocabulary – they understand the meaning of
words and are able to recognize the word when it is spoken. Doing a little regularly and
incorporating reading and writing into every lesson is a good idea. It gives the lesson variety
and students are not overloaded
A sample lesson plan (60”)
Warmer – a TPR action game. Call out action words like swim, jump and hop while
doing the actions and get the children to copy the actions moving around the
classroom as they are listening to the words.
This type of activity ensures that children are learning/practicing the words
meaningfully and by being physically involved they are enjoying the game which
makes the words more memorable. Getting children to move around in the lesson
helps them to use up the energy they have or energize and focus them if they are
sluggish or distracted.
Revise new language from previous lesson e.g. children have to point at appropriate
objects in the room as you call out the names.
Children do pick up new words quickly, but they also forget quickly, so it’s a good idea
to keep revising and recycling vocabulary. When they are able to remember the
words, they will feel a sense of success and be motivated to learn more.
* Introduce 7 letters phonically.
* Practice the new letters along with others they have already learnt.
Introduce a new song or chant and practice. Or introduce new vocabulary and
practice.
It is possible to have a lot of input in every lesson. Don’t underestimate what children
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can learn and give them plenty of opportunities to pick up new language.
Story
This is a great way to practice and/or introduce language meaningfully. See
storytelling for ideas.
A quiet game/task based on the story - drawing and coloring-in

Allow for quiet activities to allow children to process the language, have a rest, and for
you to monitor them and have one-to-one dialogues with them about what they are
doing. For example if they are drawing a picture which includes target vocabulary of
animals, you can say ‘that’s a lovely blue tiger or ‘what a funny dog’ etc: allowing
them to hear the target language in a personalized context.
A round-up activity
A phonic approach is far more useful initially than learning the names of the letters. ‘Knowing’
the alphabet, as in reciting the names of the letters in the correct order, is not useful if the
children aren’t able to match the sound with the written letter.
Activity:
Prepare 26 flash cards, each one with a letter of the alphabet in lower case (it is also possible
to buy ready-made letter flashcards, as well as cards that show common letter combinations
such as ‘ow’, ‘ee’, ‘ea’ etc).
Show the letters one at a time (not all at once, introduce around 7 each time) and say the sound
the letter makes. For the letter ‘c’ use the ‘k’ sound as this will be more useful initially.
Let the children hear the sound and encourage them to repeat it.
Practice:
a. hold up a letter and ask ‘Is this a /b/?’ or ‘What is this?’
b. pin the letters on the board and ask children to run up one at a time and ‘slap’ the letter you
call out (phonically)
c. ask the children if they know any words that begin with this sound. This is great for using
what they already know and making the strong connection between words, letters and sounds.
Internalizing the letters

Especially if the children’s own language has a different alphabet it is important that they
become familiar with the shapes of letters and can begin manipulating them. The following
holistic (they require using the body and space rather than pencil and paper) activities help to
give children a strong imprint of the shape of letters in their mind’s eye.
Body letters
Ask children to make themselves into the shape of given letters ‘make yourself an ‘s’ etc’.
Children contort their bodies into what they think the letter looks like.
You can model this easily by showing them an ‘x’ by standing with your feet apart and your
arms in the air and wide apart. Or you can show a ‘T’ by standing with your feet together and
your arms stretched out to the sides.
Or ask children to make a letter and the whole class has to try to recognize what the letter is.
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Tracing letters
Ask students to shut their eyes and with your finger trace a letter on their hand or back. They
must tell you what this is. They can play the game in pairs. There may be giggles from the
ticklish in the class, but the activity requires them to ‘see’ the letter in their mind’s eye and it’s
great fun, too.
Air writing
Before writing letters on paper, get all the students to stand up and you stand at the front of the
class with your back to them. Using your writing hand draw a big letter in the air saying its
sound at the same time. Get the students to copy you, moving their arms to form the letter in
the air.
Letter sculptures
Give out plasticine (soft modeling clay) to all the children (half-cooked spaghetti works too, but
is messier). Ask the children to make certain letters (or words). They have to concentrate on the
shape of the letter and its proportions.
The children can choose their own letter and make a big one out of plasticine or card, then
stick it on a large piece of card. Give out magazines and newspapers and let the children look
and find either words or pictures of things that begin with the same letter. They cut these out
and create a collage with their big letter. Decorate the classroom with these posters.
Recognition games
Games are motivating and help make language memorable, so try to think of lots of fun ways to
practice the new letters and sounds that you are introducing to the children.
Run and point
Pin up the letters that you have introduced to the class so far on the walls around the classroom
at a height the children can reach. Nominate one student and say ‘Juan, run and point to /s/’.
The child must look around and find the correct letter and run up to it and touch it or point to it.
(Model the activity so that the children are clear about what they have to do).
You could then turn this into a race. Divide the class into two groups. They stand in two lines at
the front of the class or down the center of the room (it’s great if you can move furniture to the
sides of the room). The children at the front of each line are the runners. You say the sound of
the letter and the one to reach and touch it first is the winner. They then go to the back of the
line and the next two children are the runners for the next letter. It is fine if other children in the
team help the runner – it’s not a test but a means of helping children learn the sound-letter link.
What begins with /b/?
Ask the question with all the letters the children have been introduced to. They can tell you any
words they know that begin with that sound. This is great for them to make their own
connections between the letter and the sound. You may be surprised at how many words they
know – even ones you haven’t introduced in class.
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Hold up the letter
Get the children to make cards with the letters they know. Call out a sound and the children
have to hold up the corresponding letter. This game allows all the children to join in and to focus
on processing the sound-letter link without having to produce any language.
Recognizing the letters
Produce handouts like this:
n hnm
o aodg
Children have to recognize which is the same letter and simply circle it or maybe color over it.
The letters are actually very similar in shape, so it’s important that children can differentiate
between them.
Copying
There are many good books that allow children to practice writing letters and words. They
simply copy by following the arrows that show them which way their pen/pencil must move.
After having done the air, body, plasticine activities it is good to move onto paper and allow the
children lots of practice with holding a pencil and making the shapes. It is not easy to begin with
and they need lots of practice to control their hand and follow the shape of the letter. In my
experience children enjoy the task and concentrate hard on producing their letters.
Words
It is a short journey from letters to words.
Introducing words
Show pictures and words together and sound out the phonics.
E.G. /c/ /a/ /t/ = cat
Move you finger under each letter as you sound it. Remember not all languages are written in
the same direction. Encourage the children to read with you.
Word building
Word tiles – get the children to make 26 letter tiles out of cardboard (old cereal boxes will do) by
simply cutting out small squares and writing each letter on them.
Each child has their letters spread out in front of them. Call out a word they have learnt e.g. cat
and the first one to find the right tiles and put them in order must put their hand up. This
encourages quick eye movement over the letters, recognition and letter combining.
Races – for fun you could challenge the children working in pairs or threes (to encourage
cooperation and peer teaching) to make as many words as possible in a specified time.
As each child has their own letters, they can play with them at home or if they finish an activity
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early and see how many words they can make. Later they can move into building short
sentences.
Worksheets
You can produce easy worksheets like this:
What animal?
c_t
d_g
a_t
Children fill in the gaps. If you can add a picture of the word too: it will make it all the more
meaningful.
atc = gdo = npe =

Children un-jumble the letters to make the word. You could also do this on the board with
children coming up and doing the activity one at a time.
Word searches
These are good for children to recognize words within a jumble of other words. It makes them
concentrate and ‘see’ words on the page.
Children have to circle or color the ten key words in the grid.
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ANIMALS
Children have to find the ten animal words in the box. You can either give them the ten words
at the bottom to help them look.
BIRD, CAT, COW, DOG, ELEPHANT, FISH, LION, MOUSE, SNAKE, TIGER
Or attach the pictures of the animals to the word-search
Crosswords
Children look at the picture, have to remember the English word and then have to write the
word – spelling correctly – to fit it into the crossword. This worksheet is also a good record of
vocabulary for them to keep and refer to.
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Teaching English Vocabulary to Children

For Juniors (5 – 11 year olds. You will be able to adapt the activities for younger or older
students)
Words are the building blocks of language and having a good supply of them is very important
for students right from the beginning of their English learning.
With young students vocabulary learning is relatively easy as the words they need (the words
they would use in their mother tongue too) are concrete – things they can see, touch, taste, play
with etc; so it easy for the meaning of the words to be made apparent without resorting to
translation or complicated explanations. How better to teach the word ‘apple’ than to show the
children an apple or a picture of an apple?
The sooner students are able to communicate ideas in English, the more motivated they will be,
so giving them a bank of vocabulary to draw on is necessary – starting with nouns and
adjectives.
Although children seem to learn new words very quickly, they will also forget quickly, so it is
very important to give them lots of practice of vocabulary to help them remember.
Presenting new vocabulary

At the presentation stage it is vital that the meaning of new words is clear. Translation is
unnecessary and indirect and also creates a dependence in students that is later hard to cure.
To present concrete vocabulary: a staged approach
e.g. Fruit
1. bring in a bag of different fruit – six to eight items at a time is plenty
2. pick up one fruit and say the word clearly a number of times, encourage the students to
repeat the word
3. go through all the words in this way
4. return regularly to a word they have already been introduced to and check they have
remembered it e.g. pick up a banana and say ‘an apple?’ or ‘is this an apple?’, students should
be able to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ appropriately before you move on to check the vocabulary further
5. to further check that students have connected the new word to the meaning ask students
individually ‘show me the banana’ etc. they will get actively involved in recognizing the target
word and indicating the object which it describes
With vocabulary like animals pictures can be used.
With verbs actions can be used – walk, sit, swim, hop etc and students encouraged to respond
to the words with the appropriate actions – this is a great game.
Once children have been introduced to the alphabet and have started reading and writing
words, after the introduction of the meaning and sound of new words, introduce the written
form. Make flashcards with words on them, read them aloud with the students and get them to
match the words to the objects or pictures.
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b_ _k c_a_r p_ _c_l
Get students to write the words under pictures like this:
Pronunciation/Drilling
Students must hear correct models of the target vocabulary in order to copy the pronunciation
and to recognize the words later. They should also have plenty of practice of saying the words
in order to get the pronunciation right and also to help memorization. Choral repetition of words
is useful but can become meaningless. To keep focused on meaning, try choral repetition like
this:
Put these five faces on the board:
When children repeat the words they have to do so conveying these emotions. Try it with the
word chocolate. Children enjoy doing this and they do the activity meaningfully.
Chants and songs are a good way to get students repeating vocabulary and by adding actions
focus on meaning is not lost.
The other good thing about songs and chants is that the words are part of connected speech at
a reasonably fast speed, so that weak forms and sound linking occur naturally. E.g. ‘knees and
toes’ if said at the speed of the song have a natural link of the ‘s’ in knees and the ‘a’ in and,
also the ‘a’ in and becomes a schwa and not a long sound.
Another fun way of getting children’s tongues around English sounds are tongue twisters:
e.g.
Yellow lorry, yellow lorry

Sally sells sea shells on the sea shore
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Vocabulary Practice Activities

Pizzas
• For food vocabulary and fun
• Give each student a paper plate and ask them to design their favorite pizza by drawing
the things they most like onto it. You can show them your own example with e.g.
cheese, tomato, ham, pineapple and chocolate!
• If they are pre-writers, they can tell you and each other what is on their pizza. If they are
able to, they write the words of the ingredients next to them on the pizza. The ‘pizzas’
can be displayed on the classroom walls.
I went to market
• For older students with a bigger bank of vocabulary.
• For all vocabulary, alphabet awareness and fun.
• Get students into a circle.
• Start by saying: ‘I went to market and I bought an apple’.
• The student to your right must repeat what you said and add another thing beginning
with B.
• Keep going until the last student has to remember 26 things bought in market!
Hangman
• A quick and effective way of getting students to revise spelling of previously introduced
words. A great warmer at the start of a lesson.
• Think of a word students learnt last lesson e.g. mountain
• Draw eight dashes on the board – one for each letter of the word
--------
One at a time students guess which letters may be in the word. If they are correct the letter is
added to the word:
’N’ = _ _ _ n _ _ _ n
If they guess incorrectly, the teacher draws one part of a hangman’s noose on the board
Students can guess the whole word at any time. But the teacher wins if the whole hangman is
drawn before the word is guessed.
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Pelmanisms
Picture of cat Cat
Picture of dog Dog
Picture of horse Horse
Picture of pig Pig
Picture of crocodile Crocodile
Picture of lion Lion
Prepare separate cards with words and pictures.

a. spread them on the floor or table and ask children to match the words to the pictures
b. once they have done this successfully turn all the cards over and jumble them up
c. in groups of up to six, students take turns to pick up 2 cards and show them to
everybody. If they get a picture and the word that goes with the picture they keep the
cards, if their cards do not match they put them back where they find them.
d. Students must try to remember where the cards have been put down.
This is a great game for concentration, reading and meaning.
Bingo
To practice word recognition

Collate a list of 20+ words the students know well – they can recognize them in their written and
spoken form and know the meanings. Either write the words on the board or hand out a list of
the words to the students. Students must choose any 9 of the words and write them onto a
piece of paper that looks like this:
E.G.
tiger blue pen
pizza ten orange
chair book girl
Teacher chooses words form the list at random and reads them aloud. If the student has the
word on their paper they cross it out. As soon as a student has crossed out three words in a line
– up, down or diagonally – they shout Bingo! And are the winner.
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Label the classroom
Children learn from everything around them and need constant reinforcement of language. A
fun way of reinforcing the written form of the words for classroom objects like door, board,
window etc is to label them.
• Write the words on card and as you teach the words stick them to the
appropriate object
• Or get students to label the objects themselves
• One lesson jumble them up and get students to label them appropriately
Activities suitable for 4 – 6 year olds
Chants
Chants are great as children
• learn to work together
• pick up chunks
• get to listen to lots of meaningful language
• have a reason to use English
• find them funny
• move their body
• enjoy repeating them
Chants are easy to make up. I made this one up for my 5-6 year olds. They had already begun
learning animals. We chanted it together and did actions for the different animals. (pretended to
splash water etc)
My name’s Fred and I’m a frog – jump, jump, jump
My name’s Kate and I’m a cat – miaow, miaow, miaow
My name’s Fergie and I’m a fish – splash, splash, splash
My name’s Micky and I’m a mouse – squeak, squeak, squeak
My name’s Benny and I’m a bird – flap, flap, flap
Songs
Classic songs like Old Macdonald had a farm are very popular with young children. Farms are
pretty universal. Young students enjoy making the animal noises and farm animals are a nice
lexical set.
To create a nice wall display, get children to draw their favourite farm animal and the teacher
(or a child who draws quickly and finishes their animal) can draw a big farm to paste the
animals onto. More animals can be added later as well as a farmer etc. Once they begin writing,
students can label the different animals.
Stories
Children love listening to stories about animals especially If there are colourful, child-friendly
visuals to help them follow the story. You can also use cuddly animal toys while story-telling to
get and hold the children’s attention.
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Games
Children all love games. 4 – 6 year olds have still to develop cooperative skills, so introducing
games that involve turn-taking helps to develop these skills. Do not despair if they get impatient
or want to take each other’s turns – they are still learning to be less egocentric and need lots of
opportunities to allow these skills to develop.
Fortune Teller
Follow these simple instructions to make your fortune teller. You can ask the children to
color in the animals.
Print out the fortune teller (see App 1). Cut round
the thick dark line to make a square.
Fold along all the lines then reopen them.
Turn your fortune teller over, and fold each

corner into the center.
Turn it over again, so that you can read the

fortunes and fold each corner into the center.
Fold in half horizontally.
How to use your fortune teller
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1. Insert the thumb and forefinger of each hand into the four pockets of the fortune teller.
Bring your fingers together.
2. Pull your fingers from one hand away from the fingers on your other hand, you will see
one set of numbers on the inside of the fortune teller. If you pull your thumbs toward you and
your forefingers away from you will see another set of numbers on the inside.
3. Start with the fortune teller closed.
4. Ask a friend to pick one of the animals then open the fortune teller forward and
backwards as you spell out the animal chosen.
5. Next, ask your friend to pick one of the numbers that show inside and open the fortune
teller that many times.
6. Finally ask your friend to pick one more number from the numbers inside and open the
flap for that number.
7. Read them their fortune and their lucky number!
8. The fortunes have some difficult English phrases. We suggest that teachers translate
these for the children.
Topic based teaching - Weather

A series of activities based around the topic of for children aged approximately 5 – 9 years old.
Why topics
Many books are based around topics and children respond well to a topic based approach
rather than a structural one. The activities presented here represent the types of activities that
you could produce for any topic.
Warmer
Weather coloring-in picture. (see App 2)
Introducing the topic

In general: the best way for young students to grasp meaning is through seeing or
experiencing. Pictures will clearly demonstrate the meaning of the key lexis you wish to present.
Weather; cloudy, rainy, sunny, snowy, stormy, hot and cold – these are good words to start with
(with students who are able to grasp more and who have been studying English for over a year
or two more words can be introduced). A lot of course books include pictures that illustrate this
lexis clearly. If you can’t find any, draw simple line drawings or find photographs or pictures in
magazines. For hot and cold you could mime actions or give examples of things that are hot or
cold: ice cream, fire etc.
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Lexical links
In general: recycling of previously taught language is vital to ensure children do not forget it,
use it in realistic contexts and also feel secure by dealing with language they already know. It
also gives you more interesting scope for language use and can be used to check
understanding of new language. When introducing/practising new language link it to vocabulary
they already know.
Weather: a good lexical link for weather is clothes. They can match suitable clothes for the
different weather words: coat, scarf, umbrella, sunglasses, swimsuit etc
A nice game is to bring in some of these items, call out a weather word and ask students to run
and pick up a suitable article for that weather. (For small classes or divide your class into
groups to play this game).
To expand practice older students can write sentences like ‘When it’s snowy I wear a coat and
scarf’.
Total Physical Response

In general: Young children find it impossible to sit still. We cannot stop this, but can allow for
lots of movement to allow children to use their energy and feel totally involved in the lesson.
Movement when linked to the target language helps children remember language as well as
enjoy the activity. Simple activities like a favourite warmer I have with 5/6 year olds are easy to
set up –
• teacher and students stand in a space (chairs and tables moved to back of classroom)
• teacher calls out a verb that children have been presented with previously and are
familiar with e.g. swim, hop, fly
• as each word is called out the teacher and children move around making appropriate
actions
• verbs can be added as children’s vocabulary grows
• teacher can stand out of the group and just call out words as the students’ familiarity
with the words grows
• students can take turns calling out the words
• my students love doing this at the start of every lesson – they like the security of a
regular pattern to lessons and enjoy moving around and showing their understanding. At
the start of the lesson it’s good to bring them all together into a group activity to foster a
sense of the group and help ‘tune’ them into English. They may have come straight from
another lesson or from home and not have heard English for a while.
Weather: For the key lexis choose appropriate actions. For ‘rainy’ walking hunched up
pretending to hold an umbrella, for ‘windy’ walking as if blown from side to side, for ‘hot’ wiping
off pretend sweat from brow etc. Play a game like that described above.
Music / Song
In general: Music, songs and chants add to the pleasure of learning and make language more
easily remembered. Singing in English for many children is more natural than speaking in
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English. Songs are a group activity and therefore secure – you don’t need to worry about
making mistakes or forgetting, and even if you don’t sing you are still listening to others.
Weather: the following is a song on the theme of weather sung to the tune of ‘London’s
Burning’. Teacher can sing the song first and do appropriate actions. Do one verse at a time
(slowly) so the children have plenty of time to digest meaning and get used to the words. It may
take a couple of lessons for younger students to become confident/comfortable with the whole
song. There will be a great feeling of success at singing the whole thing through.
• Bringing in the items of clothing will make meaning clear.

• The song combines music, total physical response and a nice lexical link.
The song:
The sun is shining
The sun is shining
Get your sun hat
Get your sun hat
It’s hot
It’s hot
Weather weather weather weather
It's raining
It’s raining
Get your brolly
Get your brolly
I’m wet
I’m wet
It’s snowing
It’s snowing
Get your scarf on
Get your scarf on
I’m cold
I’m cold
Thunderstorm, thunderstorm
Go inside
Go inside
I’m scared
I’m scared
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It’s windy
It’s windy
Hold your hat on
Hold your hat on
Blown away
Blown away
Grammar
In general: young children pick up language in chunks and are unable to analyse language from
a grammatical perspective. For example children will be able to understand the idea of the past
tense once they have had stories told/read to them that use narrative past tenses. Grammar will
be picked up rather than learnt. Focus should be on ensuring that meaning is always
paramount.
Weather: the topic lends itself nicely to contrasting is/was. Children can look out of the
classroom window and see the weather and will understand ‘it’s sunny today’ which can then be
contrasted with yesterday’s weather – ‘it was rainy yesterday’.
Routines
In general: Children need routines
• To feel secure
• To ensure lots of exposure to and practice of language
Weather: After the children have been initially introduced to weather vocabulary, at the
beginning of every lesson ask the children ‘what’s the weather like today?’ and praise their
responses. Children may say ‘snowy’ on a hot sunny day not because they have forgotten the
meaning but to make a joke – don’t correct too quickly. Making jokes in a foreign language is a
sure sign that they are acquiring the language and enjoying using it – hurrah!
Have flashcards with a picture of and word for the weather conditions to stick onto the board or
wall to reinforce the language.
Games
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In general: children love playing games, especially ones that involve problem solving. A
Pelmanism, or ‘pairs’, is a simple and effective way to practise language meaningfully in a fun
way. Take a set of vocabulary e.g. seven animals, make a set of fourteen cards, on seven write
the names of the animals and on seven draw or stick on pictures of those animals. All the cards
are spread upside down on a table or floor and muddled up. The object of the game is to find a
match. Each player picks up two cards, looking at them and showing them to other players. If
they match (name of animal and picture of the same animal) they keep them, if they don’t they
must put them back exactly where they found them and the other players must try to remember
where they are. Children pick the cards up in order until all the cards have been matched. The
winner has the most pairs.
While playing the game children must read the key vocabulary, understand meaning and also
attempt to remember the location of the cards.
Weather: Prepare cards with weather words and matching pictures and play the game.
Cross-curricular
In general: Often in teaching English to children we find that we cover topics that are taught in
the mother tongue. This is very helpful in both directions. By presenting new language that
students are already familiar with as concepts in their own language through other lessons,
children have little problem understanding meaning and concentrate on dealing with the
English. By using cross-curricular topics we support the learning of those subjects.
Weather: this topic lends itself well to learning about / revising some basic ideas about world
geography. Children can begin by using the lexis to describe their country – hot and sunny in
the summer, rainy in the winter etc, and move on to talk about the weather in other
countries/regions like the North Pole, the Sahara desert. A big map of the world is pinned to a
wall and children write sunny/hot/windy etc on little stickers and then stick them onto countries
they know about. It also helps to teach the English names for countries.
This approach could lead into a nice wall display project: children collect pictures of countries
(the pyramids of Egypt, Thai beaches, Alpine mountains etc) from magazines, newspapers, the
Internet or draw their own and paste them onto big sheets of paper and write labels for each
picture using the weather vocabulary and any other words they know to describe those
countries. This allows an opportunity for children with higher language levels to use language
they know – and makes the classroom look bright and interesting. Also other students visiting
the classroom will have opportunities to learn from the display.
Story
In general: children love stories and they are a wonderful way to practise/reinforce language
and allow children to pick up new language in a meaningful context. There are many wonderful
storybooks with colourful pictures to be found, but we don’t always have the appropriate book to
practise the language that has recently been presented in a lesson. So we may need to create
a story. A few helpers in the classroom are a good idea for every teacher of English to children
– a teddy bear, glove puppets etc make great helpers
Weather: An interactive story
Introduce ‘teddy’ to the students.
Teacher, holding teddy and making appropriate movements and facial gestures and using
slightly exaggerated intonation tells the story:
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‘Here’s Mr Teddy. He’s going for a walk in the park. It’s a lovely sunny day and he’s very …...
pause and encourage children to offer the missing word or phrase… yes, he’s hot, so he needs
to wear his….yes, his shorts and t-shirt. He wants to eat a…… yes, an ice cream etc ’.
The content of the story will depend on how much English the children know and how
enthusiastically they offer suggestions.
If they offer suggestions in the mother tongue, the teacher can accept them and repeat them in
English, giving the children the opportunity to repeat them.
It’s a chance for children to be imaginative and creative and work together to produce a story.
Storytelling:
How to use stories with children
The materials that you will find here are designed for children between the ages of
approximately 5 and 8. Children vary as much as adults in terms of language level and
personality, so you are the best person to decide which activities will suit your students.
Each series of activities is presented as a lesson plan based on a story. The lesson plan is a
flexible thing. You can decide which activities your students will enjoy most and which are most
appropriate to their age, language level and preferred way of learning. The plan could be for
one short lesson or for a series of lessons over a few weeks. It’s up to you.
Why story?
1. Children love stories and are comfortable with them

2. With their pictures and often repetitive language stories are easy to understand and
acquire language from
3. Meaning not form leads the learning
4. Stories inspire the imagination
5. Stories can lead into fun, holistic learning activities
6. Stories can teach much more than just language and be a basis for cross-curricula
learning
7. Stories make a nice change from the course book
A Multiple Intelligence Approach

A complicated title for something we have known for a long time – the idea that we all learn in
different ways and that certain themes / approaches suit us more than others. Some of us are
more mathematical, musical, physical, nature-inspired etc than others. So the activities
suggested for each story will keep this in mind, also remembering the need for variety and a
change of pace within a lesson.
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Importance of Input
From this very young age students need to hear and process as much English as possible
(supporting the lesson with lots of L1 hinders more than helps). When using stories teachers
who may not be very confident with their own English will find it easy to avoid L1 by
concentrating on using the words in the story and asking simple questions about it.
Using Pictures
The pictures are easy to download and can be used in a number of ways.
• Blow up the pictures and words as big as you can and stick them on the classroom wall.
These will then be the focus of the lesson. The story will be a shared learning experience
and you can be sure of getting the students’ attention.
• Get the students to colour the pictures before or after the reading to make them more
colourful and attention grabbing.
• Leave the story on the classroom wall after you’ve done the activities for children to read
independently (which they will be able to do) or for other classes to enjoy.
• Children can get one picture all to themselves to colour and label. This could be done as
a colour dictation – Teacher dictates which colour the children should use e.g. colour the
crocodile’s trousers blue – a great listening activity to practise the target language.
• Colouring and cutting round pictures are not a waste of time. The skills needed to
successfully colour within the lines or to use scissors accurately are the kind of careful
motor skills needed to hold and control a pen in order to write clearly. Notice how much
effort this takes the children and enjoy the change of pace in the lesson while children
concentrate on these motor skills.
The Story
The story is like the centre of a wheel. It links all the activities in the lesson. Most importantly the
story gives meaning to the language items through context and pictures, as well as children’s
innate ability to make sense of the universe through all the clues that are provided around them.
The pictures are crucial to the children’s understanding and teacher should use them as much
as possible.
See App 3
Telling the story

• Get the students sitting on the floor or in a circle of chairs in front of you, so they are all
focussed on the story and so they can all see the pictures (you may find it easier to pin
them on the wall or a board as you tell the story, but don’t put them all up to start with as
children will naturally be curious and start looking at them all and you will lose the
suspense).
• Start with picture/page one and elicit any vocabulary the children may know. ‘What can
you see?’ ‘ What animal is this?’ etc. Children may respond in their L1 and teacher can
repeat the word back in English, so they all hear it and can link it to the meaning.
• Read the dialogue/narration as it appears on the page with exaggerated intonation,
repeating if necessary.
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• Ask a few simple questions about the story. ‘Is the crocodile happy?’ ‘Is this a giraffe?’
‘Where are they?’ etc. This encourages interaction and makes children think more
consciously about the story.
• Before moving on to the next page encourage the students to guess what will happen
next. Prediction is natural when following a story and also encourages imagination as well
as language use.
• Continue the eliciting & prediction as the story unfolds.
• If students are able to read, a second reading of the story could be done chorally, or with
different children taking parts in reading the dialogue.
• Children will use L1 to respond to the story – that’s alright. Teacher can simply reply to
the children in English. (In my experience children begin incorporating English words or
chunks into such exchanges without even noticing, especially if they are not put under
pressure to do so, but if it feels natural and okay for them to do so).
Some teachers get worried if children do not seem to be paying attention, maybe crawling
under a table or even wandering around the classroom. As long as the children are not being
disruptive I would not be unduly concerned. If you spend a lot of time saying ‘Carlos sit down’
etc it’s distracting for the other students. Many children (even adults) find it hard to sit in one
place for long and are only comfortable moving. The child who is under the table or staring at
the ceiling may well be more engrossed in the story than the child at the front looking into your
eyes!
Language Level
If your students are just beginning English and haven’t learnt to read words yet, they can still
enjoy stories in English. By focussing their attention of the pictures, using dramatic intonation
when you read the words and perhaps even body language, the meaning will be clear and even
subconsciously they will begin attaching meaning to the words or chunks of language they hear.
If you have a class of children who have already studied English for a few years, even the
simplest story can be of value. They can revise language they already know, building their
confidence; and through challenging language activities practise and develop their language
skills and have fun.
Activities
The activities that will be suggested for each story are free standing – they can be used alone
or in any order you wish. They give further practice of the language that is presented in the
story and often develop it more. Some activities give children a chance to practice motor skills,
some imagination, some the different language skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking and
also very importantly thinking.
See App 4
Other Stories
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Consider using other stories you have available in your school, or at home, with similar
activities. It really isn’t so hard to create your own activities similar to those in the lessons
presented here.
A nice idea, especially for children who seem to lack confidence in the English Language
Classroom, would be to find a story that your students know well and love in their own
language, use the pictures from books you already have and add some simple narrative and/or
dialogue in English (get your fellow teachers to help, if you get stuck – this is a great way to
make the job easier and share lesson planning with colleagues). This device ensures that the
children are very comfortable with the story and have no difficulty understanding the meaning.
Teaching with Limited Resources

Hands up if you work in a school that has small classes, is well-equipped with all the latest high-
tech equipment and there is lots of space in the classrooms to move around. Have most of your
hands have stayed down?
Large classes (over 40 students and sometimes as many as a 100), limited resources (only a
course book that may be culturally inappropriate or too difficult), cramped classrooms and mixed
ability students are the norm rather than the exception in schools around the world.
Teachers want to give their students variety and help them to learn English effectively, but so
many nice ideas for language learning tasks seem impractical because of the lack of resources in
schools.
The following ideas for techniques and activities do not require using a photocopier, overhead
projector, television, video, tape recorder, supplementary materials or any other resource apart
from the students, the furniture and space you already have and pencils and paper.
Imagine a typical classroom is set up like this:
= desk and student
Classroom set-up A
There is very little room for children to get up or for the teacher to move around the class and
students must work on their own. The class is dominated by the teacher (who works very hard)
and students are very passive and probably restless too.
Classrooms may be set up like this to ensure quiet and control. If you are concerned that your
students will be noisy or silly when desks are moved, explain why you want them to sit closer and
expect some surprise, but children usually respond well when they know what is expected of
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them and when they can understand and experience the benefits of new approaches. Children
will respond negatively when they feel insecure, so tell them what they are doing and why.
Without much movement it is possible to get children to work in pairs or groups to encourage
communication and make activities more fun.
Classroom set-up B
By putting two desks together, students can easily work together, sharing ideas and peer
teaching. This is very useful when your students are mixed ability as stronger ones can help
those with problems.
Activities:
• If students are asked to complete an exercise from the course book, by working together
they can help explain what they think the correct answers are and share ideas about the
language. This approach means that they will have more chance of success and the teacher
can spend time monitoring and helping students rather than trying to help all those with
problems or keeping them quiet.
• Dialogue reading: many course books introduce language items with dialogues that
children either read or listen to on a tape. To give children practice in producing oral English
and to help them remember the new language, students can read the dialogues together,
taking a part each. Encourage them to think about the meaning of the words and to put
realistic intonation into their reading. This may seem noisy, but your students will be
maximizing their practice of English. To avoid purely mechanical reading (children not thinking
about the meaning of what they say) get students to change the words so they are more
relevant to them or to the country they are in.
• Writing: is a difficult skill. When children work together to produce a piece of text, they
have the chance to try out structures and vocabulary and tend to draft (rewrite and improve)
much more than when they write on their own. It is also more fun working with another student
and easier to sustain energy and interest in the task.
e.g. Students have been learning vocabulary to describe people. Choose a character
appropriate for the age of your students like an alien, a robber, a super hero, a corrupt
politician. First ask the students to shut their eyes and imagine this character. Then they tell
each other what this character looked like in their mind’s eye. Next they decide on how they
want the character they are going to write about to look. They could draw a picture first. After
this they write a list of all the main characteristics e.g. evil eyes, a long scar on the right cheek,
blue skin. Once they have plenty of ideas, they must write a descriptive paragraph together
(the length depends on the age and ability of the children). While they write they must try to be
as descriptive and interesting as possible. They can make as many changes as they want
while writing. Once they are happy that they have got a really good description they can write
it up neatly. You will notice that a text written in this way is invariably more accurate,
descriptive and richer than one written by a student on her own.
• Pair dictations: Students of all ages all like doing picture dictations, which are very easy
to set up and get lots of language practiced. First the teacher describes a picture and students
must draw what they hear. For example it could be to practice describing people (He is very
tall, he has large round eyes and a square shaped nose…) or for prepositions of place (There
is a house on top of a mountain. An airplane if flying over the house, an elephant is standing
in front on the house…)
Get students to draw their own pictures without showing them to their partners and then take
turns describing their picture to their partner who must draw the picture. They check each
others’ dictations by comparing the pictures. Students tend not to go back to mother tongue, if
they have been well prepared with sufficient vocabulary to do this task.
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Classroom set-up C
By moving four desks together, students can interact with each other but can still easily turn their
heads to face the board and teacher.
Activities:
• Brainstorming: before reading or writing about a particular topic e.g. transport, get the
students in their groups to think up all the words and/or ideas they know and write them onto
one piece of paper (cars, trains, dangerous drivers, petrol, pollution, I like riding my bicycle
etc). This helps to prepare them for the coming activity: they have predicted words they may
be reading or come up with ideas and lexis they can use in their writing, and very importantly
they are able to see what they already know and teach each other words they have in their
personal lexicons. It also allows for some time in the lesson that is relaxed and not teacher-
centered.
• Discussion: this is also good before students read or write about a topic. It can also be
used to recycle language previously encountered by students and may be a nice way to finish
a lesson.
Either write a statement on the board or dictate it to the students and give them a time limit
(especially if you are worried about noise levels or spending too much time away from the
book) to discuss their ideas about the statement.
e.g. Children spend too much time watching television.
Students have an opportunity to exchange ideas and practice their English in a relatively
unstructured but meaningful way.
• Problem solving: Teenagers enjoy the challenge of such activities.
e.g. Dictate the following list: a box of matches, a ball of string, a knife, a radio, enough tinned
food for 3 days, aspirins, a hammer and nails, a warm coat, a picture of your family and a gun.
Explain that in their groups they have been shipwrecked and are on a desert island. There is
fresh water on this island, trees and probably dangerous wild animals. They must decide
together which THREE of the articles on the list they would choose to have with them and be
ready to explain why.
This kind of activity makes them think and many teenagers like the challenge. It also
encourages exchange of ideas (encourage the use of expressions like ‘What do you think?’)
and variety of vocabulary and structures.
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• Role play: children of all ages like role plays. They can be used to recycle and
consolidate previously learnt language and to practice real life communications in English.
e.g. if the class has been studying food vocabulary in their course book, the groups could role
play a visit to a local restaurant, with one student being the waiter and the other three a family
visiting the restaurant. Students could design the menus before the role play.
e.g. For older students it can be valuable for them to role play family situations where there is
tension between adults and teens. While in the role of parents or teachers, they are forced to
see a situation for the other person’s perspective. They can also have a lot of fun.
Moving Around
Children all love to get up and move around. It gives them a chance to use up spare energy, to
refresh themselves if they have got tired or bored and to get actively involved in their learning.
Even if the class is rather full of furniture and children, it is usually possible to move desks slightly
closer together. Either get into the class before the children (especially for the younger ones) or
ask your students to help you – move the desks together so there is enough room for a line of
children to stand at either side of the class room.
Activities:
• A – Z: a firm favorite with all my students, especially with large classes not used to
getting up - the structure of the game ensures that students keep each other organized.
Choose a lexical set like sports. The student at the front of each line must run to the board
and write a sport beginning with A, hand the chalk to the student behind her and then go to
the back of the line. The next student goes to the board and writes a sport beginning with B,
hands the chalk to the next student and goes to the back of the line and this continues until
students reach Z. Other students in a team can help the person writing if they cannot think of
a sport. If nobody can think of one they go on to the next letter in the alphabet. The winner is
the team with most sports written on the board by the end of the game. Use large lexical sets
for this game: food & drink, jobs, things you can find in the house, countries, parts of the body
NOT furniture or musical instruments which are limited and will frustrate all the players!
• Brainstorming: can also be done in this way on the board. Write up a theme on the board
like A Bank Robbery and each student runs up to the board and must write one word or
phrase that could be used to describe a bank robbery e.g. gun, bank manager, frightened
customers, loud scream. The team with the most words or expressions in 5 minutes is the
winner.
• Advantages and Disadvantages: you don’t need all the students standing for this. Divide
the class down the middle. Those on the left must think of advantages and those on the right
of disadvantages of for example: television, single sex schools. Have 4 or 5 runners for each
side and as a student thinks of an advantage or disadvantage they tell a runner, who goes to
the board and writes it down. The team with most ideas is the winner. This is an energetic way
to motivate students to think of ideas on a topic. Telling the students that this is a competition
adds motivation – even if there is no prize, simply the satisfaction of getting more points!
Other ideas:
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• Label the room: use the classroom and everything in it as a learning resource. On strips
of paper write: door, window, teacher’s desk, board rubber etc. Hand out of the strips of paper
to different students and ask them to fix the paper on the objects (with glue or anything
appropriate or available). You can leave the labels around the classroom, so that students’
eyes will rest on them as they glance around the room and they will have plenty of
opportunities to revise these words and be reminded of their meaning.
• Create your own poster: ready-made posters are expensive and not always easy to find.
Students can create useful and decorative English posters for their own classroom. All you
need are some large sheets of paper – the back of wallpaper or wrapping paper can be used.
Any kinds of paints and colors can also be used.
Younger classes can create alphabet posters Give a letter of the alphabet to all the children
(you can just tell them what letter they have). It’s not a problem if there are more than 26
children, you can double up on letters. Each child must think of words that begin with the letter
they have and on a piece of paper write their letter big and draw the things beginning with that
letter. Collect them all together and fix onto a big piece of paper (in alphabetical order) and put
up on a wall. If they have access to any magazines or newspapers they could collect pictures
of things beginning with their letter and stick these on the poster too.
They can also make word family posters As children learn new words they draw a picture of
the object next to the word and add to a poster of similar words. So all verbs can be collected
together, all adjectives or all words about school, home and the countryside.
These posters will help children remember the words and be a source of pride as they create
them themselves.
Older students can create Grammar posters. As students are presented new items of
grammar, working in groups, they create posters to explain the grammar in away that is
meaningful to them – it could be with sample sentences, a ‘rule’, mother tongue explanation or
equivalent. They can decorate these posters and use them to help remember the grammar
and how to use it.
No photocopier? In fact teachers who have unlimited access to this handy machine often
churn out worksheets unnecessarily. Rather than handing out 4 or 5 comprehension questions
in a handout to students, try this. Dictate each question, but jumble up the words.
e.g. away Peter you do why think ran? (Why do you think Peter ran away?). This adds a
number of extra layers to the activity and challenges children. First they have to listen carefully
and transcribe the words they hear. Then with a partner they have to put the questions into
the correct order – great for English question order practice and then deal with thinking about
the answer to the question.
TEACHING TEENAGERS
Getting teenagers to speak English

in the ELT classroom
Do your teenage students lapse into mother tongue during group or pair activities?
Are they reluctant to say things in English in front of their peers?
Do they have few or no opportunities to practise spoken English outside the classroom?
Do you want them to speak more English in class?
If you have answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, read on.
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A. Why teenagers avoid using English?

Let us first examine why teenagers often avoid practising spoken English in class. They may be
reluctant to speak English in class for one or some of these reasons:
• They feel silly speaking a language in which they know they are making mistakes.
• It is artificial to communicate with their classmates in a foreign language.
• When they want to say something important to each other, they do so spontaneously in
their mother tongue.
• They do not have the English to express the concepts that the teacher wants them to
express.
• They do not understand the point of speaking English all the time in class.
• It is very tiring to concentrate on producing a foreign language especially when your
level is low.
• The topic / activity that they are supposed to be talking about in English is boring, so
they talk about something else in their mother tongue.
• Speaking English is difficult.
• Speaking English is not fun.
For students these reasons are valid – maybe they have a good reason to want to use their
own language.
The Communicative Approach encourages teachers to insist on the use of English in the
classroom, but by constantly nagging teenagers to ‘speak English’ we may be being counter-
productive. With younger children we try to immerse them in English and give them plenty of
opportunities to acquire the language. As children get older they develop a variety of different
learning strategies. While they will always be open to language acquisition, they also start using
conscious learning strategies. And may feel uncomfortable with others.
Allowing the use of mother tongue is important for teenagers, but we must understand
how this will enhance their language learning experience.
Humanistic approach
If students feel strongly about a topic they are discussing in class, the way they are learning,
issues outside the classroom etc it is only natural to allow them to express themselves in their
L1 within the classroom.
• Allow for an L1 island in the class – either a clearly defined area students can retreat to
(a corner of the room or by the teacher’s desk) in order to express themselves in L1
• Or allow a time (e.g. the first or last five minutes of any lesson) that is free for discussing
their learning, the topics of the lesson, or just telling their teacher and fellow students a
funny story that would take forever to tell in English and would lose all the humour, etc
Making it a clear place or time can instil security, but maintains an ‘English as much as
possible’ classroom for the rest of the time
Comparing languages
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The ability to compare their own language to English may help them overcome obstacles that
L1 interference creates. Translating single words or sentences can lead to greater
understanding.
Wall posters
Students can collate words on posters that either (1) have direct translations and are very
similar in both L1 and English (2) false friends – words that seem similar but are actually
different in meaning and often cause confusion (3) words that they often want to use but find
hard to remember in English – students can choose their own criteria for such word banks.
They can also expand into collecting grammatical structures in similar groups
• Idioms – students can collect local idioms and expressions with literal translations and
then the English equivalents (e.g. an Arabic idiom translates into ‘The son of a duck is a floater’
and the English equivalent is ‘Fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree’. It is interesting to discover how
similar many such expressions are even when countries and cultures seem very distant.
• Students and teacher can discuss the precise meaning of the English in L1
• Students can add L1 translations/explanations to their language records where
appropriate
Talking about language
When students are asked to do grammar exercises, or write together in English, or to do any
work where they need to think about how English works, this is a situation when students may
benefit from being allowed to use their L1 together. In these situations students often usefully
explain grammar/lexis to each other, share ideas about how English works and actually engage
in a much deeper exploration of language than one that might occur when their teacher tries to
prohibit use of English.
Teachers can make it clear that at such times L1 use is OK!
Translation is fun!
Translation is a natural strategy for many learners in approaching language learning.

Here are some activities that are particularly appealing to teenagers. They are based on
students translating from L1 into English in fun contexts, and that lead to a very focussed
production of spoken English.
Traditional songs
Students (in pairs or threes) choose a song in their own language and translate into English (an
added challenge is to try to make it still singable to the original tune)
Soap Operas
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Similarly students choose a scene from their favourite soap opera or movie and translate into
English. They can act these scenes out in front of the class later
Dubbing
Students can do the soap opera activity using a videoed episode of the programme, turn down
the sound and speak over their English versions (this may be more appealing to more self-
conscious students)
Interpreters
In threes, students take on the roles of an interviewer, a famous person who can only speak
L1 and an interpreter. They must carry out an interview (TV interviews are good as students
think about body language too) with the interpreter facilitating the communication. This is
possible at low as well as high levels.
The above activities encourage students to focus on translating meaning and appropriate
register, not just translate single words.
Tourist / Alien Role Plays
In pairs students are (a) themselves (b) a visitor from another

country or planet where only English is spoken.
(a) must explain an L1 instruction, menu, set of rules, advertisement etc to the visitor
Translation chains
Students stand or sit in lines, the first student is given a sentence in L1, they must translate it
into English and tell it to the next person, who then translates it back into L1 and tells it to the
next student etc until the end of the line. This can be done orally or can be written. This can be
hilarious and can lead into interesting discussions about how the translations went wrong.
B. How to encourage use of English?
Teenagers often do not feel comfortable using English in the English classroom because they
feel self-conscious doing so. Teenagers are very sensitive and a way of helping them deal with
this, that I have tried successfully, is to introduce different ‘masks’ for them to hide behind.
Famous People
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• At the start of a lesson put stickers on the front of the teenagers’ shirts – these stickers
have on them names of famous international figures that all the students will know (George
Bush, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pamela Anderson, Che Guevara, Aristotle etc). Tell the students
that for the entire lesson they will BE this person.
• Students must walk around the classroom and greet each other without speaking – to
encourage students to internalise the characteristics of these people.
• Next they can speak and say hello. At this stage students will tend to speak in another
voice to their own – they are ‘not themselves’ but have taken on a ‘mask’.
• During the lesson, which can be a typical one, remind students who they are and that
the only way to communicate with such an international group is through English.
• Set up a discussion on a topic – the next one in the course book will do. Students must
discuss the topic in role.
• Encourage students to do group language work like grammar exercises still in role.
This approach may not work with all groups of teenagers but has worked very successfully with
the 11 – 14 age group, once they trust the teacher.
Hats
Similarly get students to wear funny hats or use props like sunglasses, a scarf etc to denote
that they are in role as an English-speaking person during part or all of the lesson.
Set an example
If you share the same L1 as your students, stick to the rules that you set for your students. Use
English as much as possible for class routines and for managing the class as well as for ‘direct’
language teaching.
Make English use achievable
Especially with low-level classes it is hard for students to use English without sufficient support
• Provide classroom language (in the form of posters) that students can use throughout
the lesson. Phrases such as ‘I don’t understand’, ‘How do you say x in English?’, ‘How
do you spell x?’ etc can be introduced, drilled and students encouraged to use instead
of L1 equivalents.
• Make activities, such as pair work, achievable in English by ensuring as much of the
English as possible that is needed for the task is pre-taught, drilled and practised
before students are put into pairs/groups and expected to use it .A survey such as this:
TV Student Student Student Student

1 2 3 4
Films
Sports
Comedy
Nature
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Can be a useful support for students to use in order to practise ‘Do you like watching xxxx on
television?’
Students go round the class and ask four fellow students the four questions – they have all the
language they need to do the task successfully and if they want to add more information in
English they can do so under no pressure.
Contracts
Teenagers, like adults, need to understand why they do what they are asked do in the
classroom. Once their teacher explains the need for speaking English and how it will enhance
their language development, they will be readier to try to speak more English, especially if they
are clear about when they are free use L1 (see above). A contract can be negotiated between
teacher and students with clauses like:
Teacher – I will allow students to express feelings about the lesson in L1
Students – I will try to use only English during role plays and pair work practice.
Reminders
Sometimes students lapse into L1 because they simply forget they should be using English
rather than communicating, problem solving or completing a task. I introduce playful reminders
into lessons.
• Pay a fine – if students lapse into L1, I shake a paper cup with a few coins in it that has
$10 or similar written on the outside and threaten to fine them. I never take any money!
But it becomes a joke and students remind each other to speak English saying ‘You
must pay ….. a thousand dollars’ etc, so it is focuses them back on to speaking English.
• Similarly you can use a red card – you pass a card to the first student you notice using
L1 excessively or inappropriately during the lesson. It is then her/his job to pass it on
when they notice another student doing the same. The student with a red card at the
end of the lesson has to do a job for me like clean the board or carry my books back to
the teachers’ room. Again it just makes them more aware of using English.
Topic-based materials for teaching teenagers English

The materials on this page are based around a topic including many student-centred activities.
They are not suitable for Beginners.
Why a topical / student-centred approach?

• Teenagers are hard to please
• Teenagers often do not like the materials that books provide
• Teenagers enjoy rebelling against a prescriptive approach
• Teenagers get bored quickly
• Teenagers crave independence
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• Left to their own devices teenagers are often more responsible, cooperative and sensible
than we give them credit for
• Teenagers often have stronger opinions about life than many adults
So, in the following topic-based activities:
• Teenagers set their own activities within a secure framework
• Teenagers get to work in groups helping and teaching each other
• Teenagers choose what to read
• Teenagers get to set their own questions and goals
• Teacher acts as a facilitator and co-learner
• Teenagers get to feel good about what they do know rather than feeling bad about what
they don’t know
There is also a competitive edge to some of the activities. This gives more motivation to the
students to think quickly and to cooperate. I am not in favour of students being ranked as A is the
cleverest / quickest and therefore Z is the weakest / slowest. Working in a group on a variety of
tasks gives different students a chance to exercise their knowledge of aspects of English or their
world knowledge. Groups of students are competing against other groups, not individually, and
they do not need to stay in the same groups for further activities.
The following activities can be seen a selection for you to choose from or can all be done over a
series of lessons or intermittently over a semester.
Ask students to reflect on whether they enjoyed the activities and if they want to do more on this
topic or more similar activities.
The news
Before the lessons: You need to get hold of a selection of English Language newspapers. They
can be the kind published in your own countries e.g. The South China Morning Post in Hong
Kong or other. One between four students at least, if possible.
Don’t forget that many newspapers are accessible on the internet.
Activity One – Lead-in
Brainstorming A:
What’s going on in the world?

This can be done as a whole class activity, but I prefer to get students into groups of 4 – 6 with a
large piece of paper and a number of marker pens per group.
Ask students to think of all the news stories they have read or seen on the TV news recently and
write them down in English in note form e.g. earthquake in the Congo. This can be done as a
competition – set a time limit and the group with the most news stories is the winner.
Aims:
• to foster cooperation
• to allow students to bring outside knowledge that is not linguistic into the classroom
• while not apparently a language activity, some useful vocabulary like disaster, volcano,
coup etc will come up
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• to provide material for further discussion e.g. students can then rank the events in order
of importance to them or to the world in general
Brainstorming B:
What’s in a newspaper?
Allow students to use the newspapers and ensure dictionaries were available for them too.
Set up like the brainstorming above, this time students must think of all the different types of
story, information that newspapers contain: international news, local news, politics, horoscopes,
sport, gossip etc
Aims:
• to encourage scanning skills
• to encourage students to seek out and understand new vocabulary independently
• to get students used to finding their way around an English language newspaper
A follow on activity can be to compare these newspapers and the ones in your own country. Are
there as many photographs? as much international news? Was there anything here that was a
surprise? Again in groups, students can be asked to find five differences and share them with the
rest of the class.
Reading One – Teacher chooses the article
Choose an article from a newspaper with a strange title that will inspire the students’ imagination
e.g. Man bites dog, Letter found after a hundred years.
Step 1: with a long headline chop up and jumble the words, with a short one play hangman –
students must find the headline.
Aims:
• generate interest
• generate security through an easy task
Step 2: Ask students what questions they have about the story. Write about 10 questions on the
board. Ask them to guess what the answers are. (This is usually great fun as students realise
you’ll accept any ideas, as long as they are in English, however bizarre.)
Aims:
• get students predicting
• elicit language and ideas
• set own questions
• have fun, be imaginative
Step 3: students read the article and underline the parts that answer the questions they set and
discover if their predictions were true
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Aims:
• practise scanning text and finding specific information
• get a sense of achievement from having guessed correctly or laugh at how different the
reality was
Step 4 (optional): students read through carefully and choose two unknown words that they want
to know the meanings of and either look up in dictionaries or ask teacher
Step 5: Speaking
In any article there will be a protagonist – the man whose pig was stolen, the burglar who got
caught by a child etc. Students in groups write questions to ask that person, then act out TV or
newspaper interviews with them. These can be taped and listened to later or acted out in front of
the class. (Never force children to do things in front of the whole class. It could be deeply
embarrassing for them, always ask them if they want to first).
Aims:
• consolidating / practising language introduced in the article
• an opportunity to incorporate intonation and body language into language practice
• through role play shyer students often find a ‘voice'
• FUN
Step 6: Writing
a. write a better headline for the story
b. write the protagonist’s confession/diary/e-mail message about the event to a friend (let
the students choose – better something short that they have chosen to do themselves and
often better written, than something longer and written unenthusiastically chosen by you)
Aims:
• consolidating / practising language introduced in the article
• allowing for imagination
• if students write in pairs or groups, they can help each other with ideas,
vocabulary and grammar
Reading Two – Students do all the work!
Step 1: Distribute newspapers to pairs of students. Together they must look through them and
find an article that is of interest to both of them and cut it out of the newspaper.
Aims:
• skimming and scanning
• fostering cooperation
• allowing for students to independently choose what they want to read (prepare to be
surprised by their choices!)
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Step 2: Students must read the article carefully (dictionaries are a great help at this stage, also
teacher is on hand to explain any tricky vocabulary) and then write 5 – 10 questions about the
article
Aims:
• intensive reading
• vocabulary building
• question writing
Step 3: each pair of students teams up with another pair and swap articles and questions,
students read and answer asking for help form the question setters where necessary, then the
setters correct the answers to their questions
Aims:
• peer teaching
• reading for specific information
• FUN
Create a Class Newspaper – a project
Having explored the theme of newspapers, students now get a chance to create their own.
With the class decide:

• How long the project will take – a time limit and how much class time will be used must
be decided in advance to avoid the activity dragging on and getting boring
• How the newspaper will be presented – a wall display, in newspaper form or maybe even
a videoed news programme
• Who will do what – students choose who to work with, what kind of article to write, who
will supply art work etc
• The role of the teacher – provider of scissors and glue or editor in chief?
• The readership – parents? Fellow students?
In my experience students have tended to create a spoof newspaper about the class – articled
like ‘Jorge eats twenty burgers’ (about a student who likes fast food), ‘Maria dating Brad Pitt’
including a picture created with a picture of the star from a magazine and a photo of the student.
Students who like to work alone have a chance to.
Aims:
• Consolidating language about the news
• Creativity
• Students with different skills and knowledge areas get a chance to use them
• Team work
• Writing and proof-reading
• Art work / design
• Producing a piece of work to be proud of
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• Cooperative learning
• Fun
• Allowing students to take responsibility for language learning
Seven Hot Warmers for Teenagers
What’s a Warmer?
When planning a lesson particularly think about how you want it to start. A good beginning can
set the tone of the lesson and get students alert and relaxed – the best condition for learning.
The first activity is often described as a ‘warmer’ – an activity that gets students thinking in
English and awakens their brain cells, and hopefully makes them feel positive about the lesson.
Warmers can review language from previous classes or can introduce new topics, ideas and
language items. They can also be freestanding and have little connection with what was done
before or will be done later in the lesson. Warmers are often energetic and fun.
Fruits and vegetables
Aims
• To practice simple personal questions: What’s your name? How old are you? Are you
married? How many children do you have? What’s your job?
• To revise basic vocabulary
• To break the ice and make students relax and enjoy using English
• To incorporate body language and intonation in the lesson
• To get students moving around the classroom and changing the dynamics away from a
teacher-led activity
Procedure
• Ask students to write down the following words on a scrap of paper, keeping what they
write secret form those around them
• Tell them to write:
1. the name of a fruit
2. the name of a vegetable
3. a number between 1 and 200
4. Ask them to write the answer to this question – Do you like football?
5. How many pencils and pens do you have?
6. What is the first thing you do every morning?
• Now tell them that these things are actually
1. their first name
2. their family name
3. their age
4. are they married?
5. how many children they have
6. their job
• Now they must get up and go around the class and ask the personal questions and
share information about their new selves.
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• Encourage them to shake hands (if appropriate) and make eye contact when meeting
new people.
• If they don’t automatically use intonation appropriate for surprise etc, why not model it
before the activity.
e.g.
How old are you?
A hundred and fifty seven.
Really!? (said with rising intonation and a long stretch of the word)
• This game ensures that students really listen to the answers of their questions as it is an
information gap – they won’t know what the answers will be
Riddles
Aims
• To get students thinking.
• To have fun using English.
• To foster team work and stop children just calling out and attention-seeking. If they don’t
confer about the answers, they could easily lose their chance to win. You might have to
allocate a secretary / representative for each team to speak on their behalf.
Procedure
• Explain the game clearly.
• Divide the class into teams of up to 6 students in each.
• Write 6,5,4,3,2,1 on the board.
• As you read each clue to the riddles out, teams can guess what the answer is. If they
are correct after one guess they score 6 points, after 2 guesses five points, etc...
• If a team gives the incorrect answer they cannot have another try.
I’m brown on the outside.

I am not a bird, but I can fly. I’m white on the inside.
I eat insects and fruit. I’m hard and you can eat or
I’m dark. drink me.
I sleep upside down. I’m hairy.
(bat) I grow in hot countries.
(coconut)
I’m usually made of paper

I’m yellow and round But in Australia I’m plastic
I’m the same size as an apple I can lots of colors
You can’t eat me I have pictures and numbers
You hit me with a racquet on me
(tennis ball) You use me to buy things
(bank-note)
Every country has one. I’m a special day.

I have different colors. People buy each other
I need wind to fly. presents.
The British one is red, white I’m romantic.
and blue. I’m on February 14th.
(flag) (Valentine’s Day)
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I’m something English people

I’m something you do every
eat for breakfast.
day.
I’m hot.
I’m also an Olympic sport.
You can put butter and jam on
You use your legs to do this.
me.
It’s slower than running.
I’m cooked bread.
(walking)
(toast)
I’m a sport.
I’m usually done by men. I’m a beautiful animal.
You need to be powerful and I’m found in Africa.
quick. I have the first and last letters.
Muhammad Ali is the most. of the alphabet in my name.
famous man who has played I’m like a horse.
this sport. I’m striped.
You wear shorts and gloves. (zebra)
(boxing)
• Students could prepare more of their own riddles for homework to be used in
subsequent games.
Jokes – a silly dictation

Aim
• Good with higher level students to allow processing of language.
• Encourage thinking skills as well as listening and writing.
• Laughter is great at helping to create a positive and energetic classroom mood.
Procedure
• Tell the students you have a cough today but you are still going to do a dictation. If they
don’t hear words, they will just have to guess what you said.
• Read out a joke like the one below and dictate as usual but don’t read all the words –
cough instead of saying certain words e.g. Eleven people were cough on a rope, under
a helicopter, ten men and one cough.
• Students have to guess what the missing words are and write them in, either individually
or in pairs.
• After checking whether they guessed correctly, they could discuss the joke and why/if
they found it funny.
• They could also try telling jokes they know in their mother tongue in English.
THE JOKE:
Eleven people are hanging on a rope, under a helicopter, ten men and one woman. The rope is
not strong enough to carry them all, so they decide that one has to leave, because otherwise
they are all going to fall. They are not able to name that person, until the woman makes a very
touching speech. She says she will voluntarily let go of the rope, because as a woman she is
used to giving up everything for her husband and kids, or for men in general, and is used to
always making sacrifices with little in return. As soon as she finishes her speech, all the men
started clapping their hands......
Lateral thinking
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Aim
• To get students thinking.
• To allow for practice of question forms and a wide range of vocabulary.
• This activity does not have to be linked with any others.
Procedure
• Explain that you are going to read out something strange and the students have to work
out what has happened.
• The students can ask questions about the situation and you can only respond with a
yes/no/maybe.
• Read out one of the descriptions below and make sure that the students have
understood.
• The first student to guess what has happened is the winner.
• You can allow students to work in pairs or threes or teams to discuss the situation and
help each other.
Situations
1. A man is lying dead in a snowy field. There are no footprints to or from his body. The man
has a pack on his back. How did he die?
2. When Harry comes home he finds Sarah is dead, lying in a pool of water and Tom is sitting
quietly on the armchair. There is some broken glass on the floor. Tom won’t be charged with
murder. Why not?
3. A woman lives on the 30th floor of a building. When she gets home from work, she usually
takes the lift as far as the 21st floor and then climbs the stairs to the 30th. However when it’s
raining, she’ll always take the lift to the 30th floor. What explains this strange behaviour?
4. A man walks into a bar and asks the barman for a glass of water. The barman pulls out a gun
and points it at the man. The man says 'Thank you' and walks out.
5. Five pieces of coal, a carrot and a scarf are lying on the grass. Nobody put them on the grass
but there is a perfectly logical reason why they should be there. What is it?
6. A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year.
But they were not twins. How could this be so?
7. One day a man received a parcel in the post. Carefully packed inside was a human arm. He
examined it, repacked it and then sent it on to another man. The second man also carefully
examined the arm before taking it to the woods and burying it. Why did they do this?
8. A man rode into town on Friday. He stayed for three nights and then left on Friday. How
come?
Answers:
1. He jumped out of a airplane with a parachute on his back that failed to open.
2. Sarah is a fish and Tom is a cat. Sarah was swimming in her bowl. Tom started playing with
it and knocked it over.
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3. She is a dwarf and cannot reach the top button unless she is carrying an umbrella.
4. The man had hiccups. The barman recognized this from his speech and drew the gun in
order to give him a shock. It worked and cured the hiccups - so the man no longer needed the
water.
5. They were used by children who made a snowman. The snow has now melted.
6. They were two of a set of triplets (or quadruplets etc.)
7. The three men had been stranded on a desert island. Desperate for food, they had agreed to
amputate their left arms in order to eat them. They swore an oath that each would have his left
arm cut off. One of them was a doctor and he cut the arms off his two companions. They were
then rescued. But his oath was still binding so he later had to have his arm amputated and sent
to his colleagues.
8. The man's horse was called Friday.
The Balloon Game
Aim
• To energize students and foster cooperation / team spirit.
• To channel energy positively.
• The sentences are chosen to either revise a language area like word order or to set a
task or question for the students to focus on a new topic/language area.
Procedure
• for a class of 30 students get 6 balloons.
• cut up questions or sentences – taking into account their language level
e.g. Peter has regularly played tennis on Wednesdays.
If you won the lottery, how would you spend the money?
• stuff the cut up bits of paper into each balloon (this is not difficult) and blow them up and
tie them securely.
• explain the activity clearly to the students.
• divide class into 6 groups of 5 students.
• each groups chooses a runner.
• when the teacher says GO the runner runs up to their balloon, which is on the floor at
the front of the classroom (with as much space made around it as possible).
• they must burst the balloon without using their hands or feet and pick up the pieces of
paper inside.
• they return to their group and together must put the sentences(s)/ question(s) in the right
order.
• the group who finishes first are the winners.
• if they have produced questions, the next step is to work together to answer then
questions or discuss them.
Sherlock Holmes
Aim
• To get all students moving and involved in a success-oriented task.
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• To practice reading simple questions, here ‘how many’.

• To encourage a dynamic pace.
• You can ensure that quick students get more challenging questions as you hand them
out, to give everyone a chance to play the game.
Procedure
• Hand out strips of paper with directions like these:
How many students are wearing black shoes today?
How many chairs are there in the classroom?
How many students are holding pencils?
How many posters are there on the classroom walls?
• Students wander around the classroom finding the answer to their question.
• As soon as they have their answer, they run to the board, write the question and answer
and their name.
• If there are a lot of students and access to the board confined, students who have
finished can sit down in their seats when they are finished and then read out their
questions and answers in the order they finished at the end of the activity.
Noughts and Crosses
a b c
d e f
g h i
Aim
• to revise vocabulary from previous lessons in a fun, stress-free, game-like way
Procedure
• draw the grid above on the board.
• divide the class into 2 teams.
• teams take it in turns to nominate a square.
• teachers asks a question about vocabulary from the previous lesson(s).
• if they get the answer right, the team’s symbol goes into the square (usually X or O).
• if they get the answer wrong, the opposition team gets a chance to answer the question
for an extra turn.
• the first team to have a line of correct answers in any direction is the winner.
• to make it easier for yourself – give the class 5-10 minutes at the start of the lesson to
write their own questions for the opposition team.
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Be very clear about the rules from the start and ensure that the students recognize that the
teacher’s decision if final!
Teaching Reading
READING IN CLASS
Students who are faced with a text in class and asked to read it and answer questions often find
the task difficult. Once they have had some disappointing attempts at this kind of reading they
lose motivation and it becomes even harder for a teacher to get them involved in the task and
eventually successful.
We want the classroom task to help students develop the reading skill as well as other skills like
speaking, writing and language areas like vocabulary and grammar and to motivate and
challenge them.
We rarely read anything without having some ideas about what we will discover in the text,
even if we are wrong. If we read a newspaper article, we may already be following an unfolding
story or already be interested in the topic. If we read a story, we have already got a framework
of what that story will contain – if it’s a science fiction story we will be expecting strange new
worlds, aliens, spacemen, star ships etc. It is very hard to read something without having these
ideas already in our minds.
It’s not a good idea to just hand out a text and ask students to read it and then set some
questions.
a. the students must be prepared for the text
b. they must have a task set before reading otherwise their reading will have no aim – we
do not read without an aim: we want to find out some specific information e.g. did our
favorite footballer score any of the goals in last night’s match? Or we may want to get
some general information about a topic.
So before reading:
Don’t let the students see the text yet. Get them thinking about the topic of the text – use one of
the ideas below
1. Tell the class that today they are going to read a text about, for example, crime in
America. Ask them what ideas they have on this topic and if they think crimes in their own
country are similar or different.
For a class whose English level is not very high encourage the students to come up with words
or phrases and write them on the board. If all the students do not know these words or phrases,
this is a great opportunity for students to teach each other new vocabulary.
murder drugs police with guns
death penalty dangerous streets gangs
mugging terrorists
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Higher level students could perhaps have a discussion in groups on the topic or do a similar
brainstorming to the one shown in groups on large pieces of paper collecting vocabulary and
ideas.
2. Prediction is a great way to get students involved in a text and to challenge them to
produce imaginative, rich English.
3. Use pictures on the topic you are going to read to stimulate vocabulary or ideas.
Try this game – find a picture on the topic and if possible copy it onto an overhead
transparency. Cover the picture entirely and gradually reveal the picture by moving a piece of
paper covering it away gradually. As you do this keep asking the students what they see.
Accept all possibilities and don’t tell them if they are right. This will give them confidence to
keep making suggestions. Students will also be using lots of varied vocabulary and also using
their imaginations. When I do this, students become focused on the picture, enjoy the challenge
of trying to work out what is happening in the picture and enjoy seeing the picture revealed bit
by bit.
4. Jumbled headlines / titles
If you are going to read a newspaper article, take the headline and jumble it up and ask the
students to work in small groups and see which group can put the headline back in the correct
order.
e.g.
cooked life for prison sent wife man to who
the answer is – Man who cooked wife sent to prison for life ( a real newspaper headline, which
some of you may find gruesome but all the teen students I have done it with have liked!)
Doing the activity makes students think about possible meanings and already they are
beginning to wonder about the story.
This could be done with story titles too, that are longer than 5 words.
THE READING TASK
Who sets the questions?
Usually the task, quite often a set of questions on the text, is set by the teacher or is already in
the course book. You can also make your students to set their own questions.
Once you have either discussed the topic or perhaps they have done the reordering the
headline activity, ask the students what they want to discover about the text and collect their
questions on the board. Then hand out the text and ask them to find the answers to their
questions if that information is present.
A variation on this is to get them to predict what the text says. So, for example with the ‘man
who cooked wife’ text, they guess what is in the article. Very often their ideas are both
imaginative and appropriate:
e.g.
he was very hungry
he chopped her up first
he was very angry with her
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Then they read the text and check if they guessed correctly.
By getting the students to guess or set their own questions they are far more involved, use
more language and are motivated to find out by reading the text. Notice that they don’t need to
read every word – just as we don’t in our own language when reading newspaper articles.
VARY THE TASKS
Course books tend to set very similar tasks for reading. This gets very boring for students and
some students may just not be very good at that task type but still be good readers.
1. drawing
Some texts, like this one, lend themselves to a drawing task.
Inspector Lewis pushed open the door and took in the scene before him. It was
a large room with many expensive looking paintings on the walls. There was a
huge French window opposite him with the curtains partly drawn. In front of the
window was a large, wooden desk. Papers and files were scattered all over it.
Some had even fallen on the floor. Behind the desk a chair had been knocked
over. To his right Lewis noticed a dark stain on the carpet and to his left what
looked like a long silk scarf had been thrown down carelessly. In the center of
the room lay a gun. There was no-one in the room.
“Now where could the Prince be?” wondered the Inspector.
Students read the text and draw a picture of the scene described. They could work together and
discuss the position of objects in the room. You could have lots more detail in the description.
2. deduction
You could use the text above (or one similar) and ask the students to read it and in small
groups to try to work out what they think happened in the room.
3. jumbled reading
This is a nice challenging activity that encourages students to think about the logic of a text in
terms of the meaning and the grammar – which they discover is inextricably linked.
Take a text like a short story and break it up into chunks. These could be sentences or broken
in the middle of sentences. Students work in groups to put the story back into the correct order.
Here’s an example with a version of one of Aesop’s fables.

A wolf, however, did really come one day
any attention to his cries
destroyed the whole flock and then ate the boy
A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village
The shepherd-boy, now really frightened, shouted
he laughed at them because there was no wolf.
He just enjoyed playing a trick on them
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panic three or four times by crying out, "Wolf! Wolf!"
Moral – You cannot believe a liar, even when he tells the truth
made the villagers run out of the village in a
"Help, the wolf is killing the sheep"; but no one paid
The wolf, having no reason to worry, attacked and
and when his neighbors came to help him

The original story:
A shepherd-boy, who watched a flock of sheep near a village, made the
villagers run out of the village in a panic three or four times by crying out, "Wolf!
Wolf!" and when his neighbors came to help him, he laughed at them because
there was no wolf. He just enjoyed playing a trick on them.
A wolf, however, did really come one day. The shepherd-boy, now really
frightened, shouted: "Help, the wolf is killing the sheep"; but no one paid any
attention to his cries. The wolf, having no reason to worry, attacked and
destroyed the whole flock and then ate the boy.
Moral – You cannot believe a liar, even when he tells the truth.
4. make up a title
After reading a story like the one above, encourage students to think up an appropriate title.
This involves understanding the aim of the story and using key vocabulary.
The original title is ‘The boy who cried wolf’.
5. skim and scan

It’s good to develop different reading skills.
Skimming is reading quickly to get the main idea of a text.

You could give out an article from a newspaper or magazine and give students 30 seconds to
tell you the main topic(s) of the article or to find out whether the writer of the article agrees or
disagrees with the ideas she/he is describing.
Scanning is reading to locate particular information in a text.

This can be practiced in a game-like way with any text that has a lot of information in it. I might
make copies of the TV page from an English language newspaper – something like the one
below and ask questions like these:
See App 5
These questions expect the children to recognize key words in the text:
• How many times is the news shown on television tonight?
• If you like spy film which channel will you watch?
• At what time can you see a program about Einstein?
• Which channel shows most films?
• You are a Ben Moore fan, which channel will you watch tonight?
• In what year was the spy film made?
These questions expect some inference skills and wider knowledge of vocabulary:
• If you like sport, which channel will you watch?
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• How many comedy program are there on Channel 2 tonight?

• Which channel is suitable for more serious people?
• On which channel can you watch documentaries?
• On which channel can you watch science fiction?
Students are encouraged to do this quickly. You can ask questions orally and give points to the
students who find the information first or you can hand out 10 – 20 questions and allow
students to read the questions and scan the text for the answers, setting a time limit to
encourage them not to read the whole text but to look out for key words. The idea is to get
students finding their way around a text and answering such questions quickly and correctly.
Both skimming and scanning are real-life skills and also very important reading skills that
students need in exams.
EXTENSIVE READING
Reading in English is very good to help language development. Think of ways of encouraging
students to read outside the classroom, too. Suggest they read books or magazines of interest
to them. Try to collect some English language magazines like football or fashion magazines that
they will be motivated to read.
Does your school have a library? If so, encourage your students to take advantage of it. Go on
a class visit there and point out the kinds of books and magazines they might find interesting
and that are at the right level for them. If you don’t have a school library, try to make one –
obviously on a small scale - get together with other teachers and find books and magazines,
ask friends, colleagues, students and parents to donate books and magazines
And don’t forget the internet. There are lots of sites with excellent reading materials that are
free to download – newspapers and stories, too.
Teaching Teenagers English Vocabulary

Four Principles for teaching and learning vocabulary
• Recycling
It is vital to ensure that new vocabulary is regularly recycled/revised, because
if students do not get the chance to put it into use they will easily begin to forget it.
• Motivation
It is also important to ensure teenagers are paying attention and involved in their lessons and
lots of ideas for practicing vocabulary are FUN!
• Exams
An aspect of language that is judged in examinations is the range of vocabulary that students
have, so they must be able to use vocabulary they have learnt effectively in exam situations.
• Communication
In order to communicate clearly and effectively a good range of vocabulary is needed. It
enriches both spoken and written language.
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Activities
Try some of the activities below with your students, ask them how they liked them and
incorporate them into your lessons on a regular basis.
Survey
For lower levels

Students practice new vocabulary by asking each other how much they like these things. There
is a lot of repetition, which helps memorization and the students are asked for their personal
opinions, which makes the practice more meaningful.
Choose concrete nouns the students have recently been introduced to and create a worksheet
like the one below. Students must go around the class asking as many of their classmates as
possible the question ‘Do you like……..?’ and recording the answers on the sheet.
Find out what your classmates love, like, don’t like and hate. Go around the class and ask the
questions e.g. Do you like comics? and fill in the chart:
This example is based on vocabulary for types of book etc that students may read.
name comics newspapers science romance adventure

fiction stories
e.g.
Juan loves likes doesn’t hates doesn’t
like like
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Crosswords
A fun way to practice vocabulary is with crosswords.

See: http://puzzlemaker.school.discovery.com
Categorizing language
Many teenagers like to be logical and organize language and notice patterns.
Collect a selection of words that students have learnt over the last few months, jumble them up
and ask them to put them into groups like the example below.
Put each word into the group. Look at the examples.
England book hamburger football bowling
August dictionary crisps June glue
Argentina China boxing rubber
March apples swimming cake
pencil November surfing Tunisia
December
chocolate Germany
Countries Months Food

e.g. England e.g. August e.g. hamburger
Sports School things

e.g. football e.g. book
Board games
Board games are always fun. Creating an activity like the one below does not take a lot of time
and ensures meaningful practice of previously taught vocabulary. This can be done at all levels,
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but try to vary the types of question for higher levels. To encourage leaner independence, you
can also get students to create board games like this for each other.
A good time for a game like this, is at the end of a unit or semester to go over a lot of
vocabulary that has been learnt.
Rules of the game:

• Play in groups of 3 – 6 students
• Place your counters on the start square
• Player one flips a coin. Heads means move one square, tails means move two squares.
• Player 1 moves their counter to the correct square and answers the question. The other
students in the group decide if the answer is correct. If it is not, the player must return to
the square where they started.
• Player 2 flips the coin and plays and so on.
• Play continues until the first player reaches the finish line.
Start 2. 3. 4 5
1.
What do you Name three Who is your What is the Have another
eat for sports favorite movie opposite of go!
breakfast? star? sad?
10. 9. 8. 7 6.
What does a What’s your What’s your Miss a Go! What does an
carpenter do? favorite color? favorite lesson . undertaker
at school? do?
11. 12. 13. 14. 15.
What clothes Have another What is the Name three When’s your
do you wear to go! opposite of musical birthday?
school? enormous instruments
Finish 19. 18. 17. 16.

20.
You have What music do What does a Miss a Go! Name three
won! you listen to? plumber do? fruits
How many words in?
To encourage students to pull out words they know from the storage area of the brain.
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Write up a long word on the board. e.g. handsome.

Show how using the letters in this word you can make new words:
hand
some
ham
same etc.
Challenge the students to make as many words as they can. Giving a time limit will add to the
tension. You can play this game many times choosing a new starter word each time.
Definitions
See App 6
Games like this are great for revising specific lexical sets that have been presented in previous
lessons or for finding out what students know / remember from their previous contact with
English.
Class quiz
Another nice vocabulary revision activity.

• Get students to write quiz questions for each other based on vocabulary they have
recently covered in class.
• Go through examples with them first e.g.
What is the opposite of expensive?
What do you call the person who cuts your hair?
What do you find in a library?
• Divide students into teams and have a score-keeper. Students ask each other the
questions and decide if the answers are correct. Score-keeper keeps the score on the
board. The team with the most points at the end of the quiz wins.
• The teacher must have the final say on everything!
Class story
A good way to take the stress out of story writing and give students ideas about how to use
vocabulary effectively.
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Teacher gives prompts orally and encourages students to flesh out the story with details i.e.
good vocabulary.
e.g.
Two robbers walk into a bank. Tell me about the robbers? What did they look like? What was
the bank like? Were there many people? What did the robbers carry? What did they say?
After this spoken part of the lesson, students can write their version of the story. There will be
richer vocabulary used, as it has already surfaced during the first part of the lesson.
Storytelling
See tips above

A lovely activity to get students involved in a supported way in developing description and
dialogue in a story.
More tips on teaching vocabulary
a. Encourage your students to keep good personal vocabulary records. Just a list of new words
that came up in the lesson is not very useful after a couple of days. Students may find it useful
to use any of the following:
• Translation
• Examples e.g. furniture e.g. table, chair, wardrobe
• Picture
• Definition in English
• Opposite
• Word within meaningful example sentence ( ‘I like roller-skating’ does NOT help
students remember what roller-skating means, whereas a picture or translation might).
• Collocation e.g. to apply for a job
• Diagram or picture e.g. for parts of the body
b. Reading extensively doesn’t automatically improve students’ use of vocabulary. To
encourage their expansion of vocabulary, get students to collect new words they have learnt
and to use them soon in their own writing.
c. Collect new words learnt in class on large sheets of paper on the classroom walls and refer
to them often, encouraging students to use them in spoken and written English.
Teaching Teenagers Grammar

Grammar is a word that often freezes the hearts of students and teachers alike because:
• it has often been taught as a separate skill strangely disassociated from the rest
of language learning
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• students have had to learn the labels for language e.g. ‘past continuous’, which
can be like learning a third language
• students have had to do lots of grammar exercises that have had little or no
meaning for them
• it’s not been fun
• it’s not been meaningful
• it’s not been memorable
The age group that I will refer to is nine + years old.
Why this age group?

Under nine year olds have usually not passed what Piaget refers to as the pre-operational
stage. The overt teaching of grammar to younger children is pretty much a waste of time, as the
concepts of ‘past continuous’ etc are too difficult for them to understand in any language. Also
they learn holistically, learning chunks of language through clear contexts like stories and
videos rather than through analysis.
At around nine children become more aware of the structure of language and are often
expected (by course book writers and therefore also teachers) to learn language structurally
and be able to describe language grammatically.
An Approach to teaching Grammar

(not the only one, but a very teacher and student friendly approach)
When teaching Grammar the following aspects of the language items need to focused on – see
checklist below
meaning
context
pronunciation
form
practice
Meaning – must be clear

There is no point learning ‘grammar’ if the meaning of the language item is not clear.
Remember that some bits of grammar have more than one meaning and this could confuse
students.
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e.g. present continuous – Peter is playing tennis could mean three different things. Look at
the responses to the following questions.
1. I want to talk to Peter. What’s he doing at the moment?
• Peter is playing tennis. (= now, present time)
2. Peter has a three month holiday. What a lucky guy. What is he doing with his time?
• Peter is playing tennis. (= these days, past, present and future)
3. Can I see Peter tomorrow at three o’clock?
• No, Peter’s playing tennis. (= the future)
Choose one meaning and teach that separately – do not confuse children with multiple
meanings. Be clear in your own mind about what you are teaching.
Teaching grammar: can/able to

Can means is able to, as well as is permitted to.
e.g. I can speak Japanese. / You can smoke in the café.
Make sure you focus on one meaning and don’t muddle them up.
Context - Choose a clear context to introduce the meaning
Pictures are very good for presenting grammar. For can/able to you can have a picture like this
(draw one on the board, or find an appropriate picture in a magazine)
*Say - This is Mighty Mike. He can pick up an elephant.
Have a second picture – a weedy man struggling to lift a chair –
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*Say - This is Weedy Will. He can’t pick up a chair.
Elicit other sentences from the students. Give them prompts if they do not have enough
language to think of their own sentences like –
- pick up a table
- fight a crocodile
- break a door
Students make sentences like:
Mike can break a door. Will can’t fight a crocodile.
To ensure meaning is clear make examples about the students from facts you know. e.g.
Miguel can play football. Anna can’t speak Chinese.
Ask questions that require only yes or no answers, so students can concentrate on meaning:
Can I pick up an elephant?
Can Johnny speak Japanese?
Can Maria cook paella? etc etc
Using real examples from the class will ensure that they are meaningful for students. If you add
some very silly ones, you will get the attention of students and they may be motivated to add
their own examples.
* concentrate on allowing students to hear the target language. Later they can see the written
form, but now they should be digesting the meaning through the context and teachers’
questions.
Pronunciation
It is vital that students hear the target language and are able to practice saying it correctly in
order that they can later communicate effectively: understanding it in speech and saying it
correctly so that others can understand what they are saying.
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Drilling Grammar:
This is a very valuable activity and students need to hear and repeat target language to get
their ears attuned to it and their tongues used to producing it.
• Model the target language e.g. He can pick up an elephant. Ensure you use the
schwa in can. Allow students to hear the model sentence a number of times.
• Get students to repeat the sentence all together – you may need to say 1-2-3 get
them to say it at the same time
• Get individual students to repeat the sentence so you can check that they have got it
right
• Repeat with other example sentences: He can’t pick up an elephant. She can speak
Japanese.
• Allow plenty of opportunities for students to hear and say the target language. See
below for practice ideas.
Form – students need to be able to recognize and produce the written form
Writing the target language can aid memorization and produces a record of the language in
their exercise books that they can refer back to.
They can practice the written form in a number of ways. Choose one or two of those below:
A. Produce a grammar worksheet with five pictures of Mighty Mike and Weedy Will.
Students have to read the following sentences and match them to the pictures.
He can break a wall.

He can’t pick an elephant.
He can pick up an elephant.
He can’t break a door.
He can fight a crocodile.
Here students read the sentences and their focus in on the words on the page linking with the
meaning of the pictures.
B. Give the students sentences like these:
fight can he crocodile a
can’t wall a he break
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Students write out the sentences correctly, focusing on word order.
C. Give students this grammar grid:
1 2 3 4
He can pick up an elephant
She can’t
And ask them to add words to columns 1,3,4
e.g.
1 2 3 4
He can pick up an elephant
She can’t fight a crocodile
I speak Spanish
We swim
They cook spaghetti
play basketball
D. Give students sentences like this and ask them to fill in the missing words:
Mighty Mike ………… pick up a car.
Weedy Will can’t ……………. a crocodile.
E. Don’t forget to include presentation and practice of question forms.
Can you / can he / can they etc ?
Students match questions to answers, e.g:
Can you play the piano? No, they can’t.
Can he swim? Yes, she can.
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Can they pick up a car? Yes, I can.
Can she speak French? No, he can’t.
Grammar Practice
To aid memory and make the language real for students they need to practice the target
language in contexts that are appropriate to them (consider their age). Practice can be
speaking, listening, reading or writing.
Questionnaires
Produce a worksheet like this (using vocabulary students are familiar with):
name swim speak play tennis cook

French
Students go round the class and ask their classmates the questions:
Can you swim?
Can you speak French?
Can you play tennis?
Can you cook?
They write the name of the classmate they are interviewing. If the answer is yes, they tick the
box, if it’s no, they put a cross.
Writing practice
Students can choose a few classmates and write sentences about them:
e.g. Carlos can swim, can’t speak French, can play tennis and can’t cook.
Talking about famous people

Ask students to bring in pictures of their favorite pop, film or sports stars.
A. In groups students tell their classmates about their stars:
e.g. Jennifer Lopez can sing, dance and act. She can’t cook.
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B. Students write sentences under their pictures and display them on the class notice
board.
C. Make it a game. Have students write their can / can’t sentences on cards without the
names of the stars. Put them all up on the class wall and get students to read all of
them and try to match them to the correct stars. Students can be encouraged to find out
some interesting facts about what the stars can or can’t do for homework. Teenagers
won’t mind doing this if it is about stars they like!
Grammar Games
One of the approaches, which is especially successful with teenagers, who enjoy more
independence and have more English in their heads is the discovery method.
E.G. For the use of ‘the’ with proper Nouns

cut up the following
Rome Buenos Aires Beijing
Netherlands Philippines USA
Poland Senegal New Zealand
Amazon Nile Thames
Pacific Mediterranean Atlantic
Andes Alps Himalayas
Africa Asia Europe
Jumble them up and hand the words to groups of 3 or 4 students. Ask them to
A. Organize the words into groups of three and tell you what the groups are e.g. cities,
mountain ranges
B. Divide the groups into those which take ‘the’ and those which don’t
C. Come up with the rules = cities do not take ‘the’, plural countries like Netherlands take
‘the’
D. Ask students to expand the activity into : shops, hotels, cinemas, streets… and write up
the rules on big sheets of paper to put onto the classroom walls
Students have been allowed to notice patterns for themselves and come up with ‘rules’.
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Teaching English Using Games

Games For All Ages
You might like to try some of these with your adult classes too!
Why Games?
Games make us laugh. We all like to laugh. Pleasure is very motivating. Laughter makes us
more awake and relaxed. Laughter raises blood pressure just long enough to increase oxygen
and blood supply to tissues. It alters the breathing cycle so that more oxygen is inhaled and
carbon dioxide exhaled. Muscles throughout the body tense and relax during laughter in exactly
the same way as with stress reduction techniques such as yoga.
If we find something funny, it is often memorable as it strikes a resonant chord within us.
• Many games are competitive and while I do not like the idea of making children feel like
failures when they do not win, team games promote co-operation and if teams are
regularly mixed up, everyone’s a winner.
• Some games rather than being amusing, encourage us to use our knowledge of the
world around us rather than linguistic knowledge, which brings the world into our
classroom.
• If lessons are long or daily we need to have plenty of variety, while still focussing on
English language development – games provide variety.
• Games can be used as a ‘carrot’ with less motivated students. The promise of a game at
the end of class may encourage them to complete less inspiring activities well.
THE GAMES
Not all may be suitable with all ages, especially with the under eight year olds. You know your
students and what their language level is, but don’t underestimate what they are capable of
especially when it’s presented as a game.
Game 1 – Noughts and Crosses
Possible for all ages depending on the questions asked. Great for general knowledge.
How to play:
• Draw a noughts and crosses grid on the board. Write number 1 – 9 in the corner of each
square.
• Divide the class into two teams. One team is X and the other O.
• Decide on the topic of the questions you will ask – they could refer to the previous unit in
the course book, be general questions about English, be on general knowledge or on
subjects the children study in their own language at school – on anything at all.
• In turn each team decides which square they want to nominate.
• Teacher asks a question. If the team get it right their symbol is written in that square.
• The first team to get a line of three symbols in any direction across the grid is the winner.
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You can play this game any number of times and keep score.
Worried about running out of questions? Get the students to write them for the opposing team
– great practice in question formation.
Game 2 – Fishing for English
English is everywhere these days – in advertisements, menus, the media. To raise awareness
of this, set the following homework – over a weekend perhaps.
Ask students to ‘collect’ any English they find in their environment – this could include literally
collecting some adverts from magazines that include English or menus from MacDonalds etc or
writing down English words or phrases they notice spoken on local television or even words
they and their families use that have been integrated into their mother tongue. A lovely display
could be put together on the classroom wall with this collection.
Game 3 – A to Z Race
A great vocabulary revision game.

Divide the class into two teams each standing in line at the board.
• Give them a topic like food and drink, sports, countries etc (they must be very large
lexical sets).
• The student at the front on each line runs to the board and must write a word in this
lexical set beginning with A on the board.
• She then hands the chalk or pen to the next person in the row (and runs to the back of
the line), who adds a word beginning with B until they reach Z.
• If they cannot think of a word beginning with a particular letter they can leave a space,
but the team with most words at the end is the winner.
Example of a board during a game.
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Game 4 – Mime Game
Some students love mime and others are not so keen. Adolescents can get very self-conscious
and embarrassed, so don’t push it upon them. Students between 8 and 12 usually love them. I
have had many adult students who liked them too.
Prepare slips of paper with instructions like these;
- You’re knitting on a fast train.
- You’re eating spaghetti with chop sticks.
- You’re sweeping leave outside on a windy day.
- You’re washing a big, angry dog.
- You’re a clumsy waiter.
- You’re a drunk tightrope walker.
These can be relatively easy or very complicated linguistically depending on your students.
• Give a slip of paper to one student with the instructions that she is going to mime the
activity and the others must guess what she is doing. No words, in any language, can
be spoken.
• The first person to guess – in English what she’s doing is the winner and gets the next
slip of paper. (If the same students always guess, let others have a chance to mime).
Once they get the idea of the game, get students to write similar instructions on slips of paper.
This can get incredibly funny.
Game 5 – Kim’s Game or The Memory Game
A quiet game of concentration for when the laughter gets too much.
Collect around 20 objects – ruler, pen, comb etc. Just look around the classroom, teacher’s
room, your handbag or kitchen for objects that your students know the words for. This game
can even be played with 5 or 6 year olds if you limit the objects and ensure they know the
vocabulary. Place the objects on a desk in the class covered with a scarf or something similar.
Tell the students they will have 4 minutes (vary the time depending on the class) to look
carefully at the objects and remember them. After 4 minutes cover the objects again and
students must write down what they saw. They can do this individually or in small groups.
The winner (s) is the student who remembers most.
Game 6 – The Circle Game
Great for listening. Arrange chairs in the classroom so that everyone is sitting in a circle. Give
instructions like:
- Everyone who has a sister change seats
- If you live in a flat or house with an even number change seats
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- If you are wearing brown shoes change seats

- Everyone with blue eyes change seats
Again instructions can be graded so that even students with little English can play – using
colours, clothes, family etc.
Those who fit the description must stand and change seats, the others remain seated. After a
few turns, remove a chair at each instruction, so that one person does not manage to get a seat
and they are out – they could then give the next instruction. The last student remaining is the
winner.
Be careful with boisterous classes – there may be some overenthusiastic pushing.
Game 7 – Triple Pelmanisms
The pairs version of this is quite well-known. Students have a number of cards in front of them
upside down and they must take turns turning over two. If they get a word that matches the
picture they keep the cards. The student with most pairs at the end is the winner.
This version is more challenging and I have had classes of teens thoroughly enjoying the
challenge.
The version below is based on lexical sets, but you could choose the three parts of the verb
(go, went gone, drink, drank, drunk etc).
Prepare cards like the ones below
Table Desk Wardrobe
Kitchen Bathroom Toilet
Peach Orange Banana
Mexico Spain Australia
Red Green Pink
• Cut up the cards, ensuring you cannot read the words when the card is upside down.
Spread them on the floor upside down and mixed up.
• Divide your class into up to five teams.
• Each team must nominate a secretary who will choose the cards.
• One at a time each secretary will ask the teacher to turn over three cards (great for ‘on
the right’, ‘that one near your foot’ etc).
• The team only wins the cards if the words are all in the same lexical set.
• Otherwise the teacher turns them over again in exactly the same place as they were.
• The teams with most ‘threes’ at the end is the winner.
Students really focus on the position of the cards and think carefully about meaning of words
and how they connect.
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Game 8 – Making Sentences or Cows enjoy politics in April
Find an English magazine or newspaper and cut out about 40 words ensuring you have a
balance of parts of speech and stick them onto a sheet of paper in no particular order
something like this:
Give out copies of the sheets to students in groups of up to four. Print this set of words.
They have seven (depending on level and complexity of task) minutes to create: one sentence
with three words, one sentence with four words etc depending on level.
Sentences may be like this:
3 words - Radio is free.
4 words - Most parents are happy.
5 words - Cows enjoy politics in April.
This game encourages creative use of language and after the sentences are produced, the
students could choose one and write a story or newspaper article that this sentence is a title or
headline to.
There’s a game there
Many activities can be made into games by making them competitive. For example course
books usually have grammar exercises. I get my students to work on these in ‘teams’. The
teams with most right get a point and we collect points on the board during a lesson, so that
points from later games and exercises can be added. The team with the most points at the end
is the winner.
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Teenagers – Writing Compositions

Students find writing compositions very difficult because
• It is often a solitary task, often given as homework and therefore unsupported.

• They find composition titles boring.
• They often feel failure when they have writing returned to them covered in red ink.
• It’s not communicative.
• It’s not fun.
• Writing compositions is usually a requirement of formal examinations like FCE, which
teenagers usually perceive as stressful, linked to failure and unmotivating.
• Writing is a difficult skill even in our mother tongue – consider how often we have to
write continuous impressive prose in our lives, especially when texting and emails
encourage short abbreviated text.
There are many skills involved in producing good compositions. Don’t expect students to be
able to write well without breaking down the skills and practising them separately. Footballers
practise shooting at the goal, dribbling, tactics etc. They are not simply asked to turn up at the
match and play the game!
Skills needed to produce good writing

§ Correct grammar
§ Range of vocabulary
§ Accurate punctuation
§ Correct layout
§ Correct register
§ Accurate spelling
§ Good range of sentence structures
§ Linking
§ Imagination
§ Planning
§ Drafting
§ Proof reading
§ Communication
You can think of more!
The following are some classroom activities which aim to develop some of the skills above.
They are meant to be achievable, for there is nothing more motivating than success, and also to
be fun.
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Grammar Auctions
Practise grammar and proof reading

Choose ten to fifteen sentences that your students have written in past compositions or are
similar to those students often write. Half should be correct and the other half contain errors that
are typical of your students.
e.g.
He has visited China ten years ago.
I usually live in Bolivia, but am living in Peru at the moment.
If had a lot of money, I will buy a sports car.
When you arrive in Paris, you will see the Eiffel Tower.
Write these sentences onto big pieces of card or onto the board. Prepare ‘pretend’ money for
the students or use Monopoly money.
Students, in groups, get a chance to look at the sentences and decide which they want to buy.
If they buy a ‘good’ sentence, they will make a profit. If they buy a ‘bad’ sentence, one that
contains a grammar error, they will lose their money. Auction the sentences to the class. (Who
will give me one thousand dollars for this sentence, two thousand, three thousand? Going!
Going! Gone! Sold to Mario’s team!)
This often leads to a lot of competition between groups and fun, but most importantly
encourages students to look carefully at the sentences and discuss whether the grammar is
correct or not. The ability to spot errors in their own writing is hard for students, but is a skill
they need to develop to become more successful writers, especially in exams. If students like
the activity, you could incorporate it into regular diagnosis of their compositions.
Dictogloss
Focus on communicating meaning and using correct grammar
This is a type of dictation.
Choose an interesting or amusing passage, with grammar and vocabulary items that your
students are quite familiar with. Some unknown vocabulary is actually good, as they need to try
to make sense of the ‘whole’ meaning.
Read the passage out at normal speed twice. The first time students just listen, the second time
they can make notes.
In pairs or small groups, students have to share what they remember and attempt to write a
version of the passage that remains true to the original’s meaning and has correct grammar, but
does not have to be exactly the same.
You can get your students to write their versions on OHTs and then to look at them together
and decide if they are similar in meaning to the original and if you think the grammar is right.
Students do not worry about content, as this is provided, but concentrate on the communication
of message and good grammar.
This is a passage which can be used with teenagers and adults around FCE level. It is a true
story, which adds motivation to listen.
A few years ago, at the Seattle Special Olympics, nine contestants, all physically or mentally
disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100-yard dash.
At the gun, they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a relish to run the race to the
finish and win. All, that is, except one little boy who stumbled on the asphalt, tumbled over a
couple of times, and began to cry.
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The other eight heard the boy cry. They slowed down and looked back. Then they all turned
around and walked back. Each of them. One girl bent down and kissed him and said, ‘This will
make it better’. Then all nine linked arms and walked together to the finish line.
Everyone in the stadium stood, and the cheering went on for several minutes.
Some interesting discussion on the nature of competition and cooperation may come out of this.
Choose a passage that you feel your students will respond well to. I have also chosen
gruesome newspaper stories to grab the attention of those rather macho teen boys!!
Brainstorming
Don’t be boring, use interesting vocabulary and ideas
Thinking of good ideas and vocabulary is often not something students do well, especially in
exams. This skill can be developed in class. It is a good warmer before students do some
writing on the topic.
§ Write a topic on the board e.g. crime and get students to call out either good words or
plot ideas for a story (gun, scar, bandit, threaten, bank robbery, kidnap etc). Collect
those words and if students are not sure of the meaning, clarify.
§ Get students into four groups, give out one big sheet of paper per group, like this
Nouns Verbs
Adjectives Dialogue
Ask students to write down as many words appropriate to the composition topic. After a few
minutes, students pass around their paper, so groups read others’ ideas and add their own. Do
this again and until all groups have written on each sheet of paper. Again clarify any words that
students are not sure of. You don’t need to do this, the students who wrote the word can.
§ My cat is a ……….. cat. In a circle students say the core sentence, but each student has
to think of a different adjective to describe the cat. The first must start with A, the
second with B and the third with C etc. Other nouns can be used depending on the
topic of the composition that will be written later, ‘my school is a ‘, ‘the bank robbery
was a ‘ etc
Register
Recognise appropriacy of style / register
Students sometimes get register confused when writing. This activity helps them to recognise
style/register.
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Hand out this list to students.
Once upon a time……….
I regret to inform you……………
All my love, Boris xxxx
In conclusion, it must be stated that………….
She grabbed the gun and pointed it a Dillon.
The windows are large and look down onto a flower-filled garden
All this can be yours for only $999, if you call this number…………
Add two tablespoons of sugar and stir………
I look forward to your prompt reply…
Here in the studio we have the lovely Dido. Hi Dido….
Students discuss where they think these are taken from and why.
Linking / structuring compositions

Use pictures to focus on logical sequence of events
See App 7
Students put the pictures into the correct order and write the story. Encourage them to link the
sentence using
…………. And, but, then, next, after …..ing, he …….., etc
and to add adjectives, adverbs
Visualisation
See a whole story before writing it – the supermarket thief
Students often start writing a narrative before planning where it is going, This activity
encourages them to ‘see’ the entire sequence of events before starting writing.
Ask students to shut their eyes, and relax. Give the following, or similar prompts, pause
between prompts;
• Imagine a busy supermarket
• What can you see?
• What can you hear?
• How do you feel?
• What are you buying? Why?
• You see a person, who makes you suspicious
• What does this person look like?
• What are they doing that is suspicious?
• They take some items form a shelf and hide them in their coat
• What are the items?
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• How do they take them?

• How do you feel?
• What do you do now?
• How do you feel at the end?
Students can tell each other about what they imagined. They can go on to write their story. This
technique is useful for narrative or descriptive writing.
It is not always necessary for writing to take place for a pre-writing activity to be useful.
Real Writing
Activities that foster real written communication
Writing in English can often seem the most unnatural thing for teenage students to do. Here are
some real classroom writing activities.
§ Graffiti Wall – designate one wall, display area for English Graffiti. Encourage students
to write up any thoughts, funny sayings, gossip – make writing English fun!
§ Letters to teacher – ask students to buy a separate exercise book to write letters to you.
In class or for homework, ask students to write you a letter. They can tell you anything
or ask questions. Respond to each individually and encourage them to continue this
form of communication any time and only if they want to. This could also be done on e-
mail. This may seem like a lot of work, but response can be amazing and helps build a
relationship of trust between teacher and teen students.
§ Organise for students to write to pen-friends around the world.
§ If students have a favourite international pop, movie or sports star, get them to write a
letter to them or their fan club.
§ If your students feel strongly about world issues, like the deforestation of the Amazon,
get them to write letters to world leaders or key organisations expressing their feeling –
send them. Usually offices will respond and this will motivate students.
§ Have quiet times in class, when the only communication, for students and teacher alike,
can be written, either on the board or on scraps of paper - a nice activity to quieten
down classes!
Group Composition Writing

Practise writing entire compositions with peer support
Rather than give a composition to write in class to individuals and get them to write in silence,
get students to write one together in small groups. The sharing of, ideas, vocabulary and mutual
correction often leads to a much better product and brings to the surface the skills that are
required to write successfully.
Correction
Motivate, don’t discourage
A composition returned to a student covered in red ink is very de-motivating, think of ways to
make correction more positive
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For example:
o Peer correction – in pairs students read through each others’ compositions and correct
orally and discuss what might be a better version = helps students notice errors and
analyse them, but this activity depends on mutual trust between students
o Do not mark anything incorrect on the students’ compositions – just praise everything
good – a nice piece of vocabulary, appropriate grammatical structure, imaginative idea
etc
o Use different colours – not just red!
o Correct only one type of error per composition and tell students that you will be doing so
before they write. For example, just correct the tenses or articles.
Consequences
Hand out a sheet of paper to each student. They are to write one sentence after your cue. Fold
the paper forward so the sentence cannot be seen, pass the paper to their right, or so that all
students receive a different piece of paper for each cue.
eg A love story
CUES:
• Write a sentence to describe a man. Give him a name. What does he look like? What is
his character like?
• Fold the paper, pass it to your right.
• Now write ‘met’ and write a sentence to describe a woman. Give her a name. What does
she look like? Etc
• Now write where they met. Describe this place. Remember to use good adjectives.
• What did the man say? Write it down.
• What did the woman say? Write it down.
• What happened in the end.
• Now open the paper and read the love story.
The students will be motivated to read what has been written and that can be the end of it.
Students could also choose a story and work on it – improve the links, grammar, vocabulary
etc. All sorts of topics can be covered and teacher can decide on the prompts. This activity
never fails to make my students (adults and children) enjoy the result of the writing process.
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Teaching English to Children

TESOL Canada- 2018

How children learn

Pre-school or just Not used to classroom Ø Training in class routines

Limited motor skills Clumsy control of pen / to develop motor control

Learn holistically whole child needs opportunities to move, sing,

Cannot distinguish Cannot analyse Exposure to chunks* of

Limited reading/writing Introducing reading/ Lots of listening, speaking

See no need to Students use L1 Reasons to speak English

Beginning to be logical and Can see patterns, aware of Opportunities to experiment

Asking questions Need answers Freedom to express

Developing confidence to Students will have views on Chance to state opinions

Longer attention span Greater range of activities Opportunities to engage in

Knowledge of the world More topics can be Stimulation

Taking learning more Can be given responsibility Chances to be independent

Intellectual, motor and Can be challenged more Activities that challenge

Beginning Reading and Writing with Young Children

* Introduce 7 letters phonically.

A quiet game/task based on the story - drawing and coloring-in

Internalizing the letters

Run and point

What begins with /b/?

Hold up the letter

Recognizing the letters

Produce handouts like this:

It is a short journey from letters to words.

You can produce easy worksheets like this:

atc = gdo = npe =

Teaching English Vocabulary to Children

Presenting new vocabulary

To present concrete vocabulary: a staged approach

With vocabulary like animals pictures can be used.

Get students to write the words under pictures like this:

Yellow lorry, yellow lorry

Vocabulary Practice Activities

Picture of dog Dog

Picture of horse Horse

Picture of pig Pig

Picture of crocodile Crocodile

Picture of lion Lion

Prepare separate cards with words and pictures.

To practice word recognition

tiger blue pen

pizza ten orange

chair book girl

Label the classroom

Activities suitable for 4 – 6 year olds

Fold along all the lines then reopen them.

Turn your fortune teller over, and fold each

Turn it over again, so that you can read the

Fold in half horizontally.

How to use your fortune teller

3. Start with the fortune teller closed.

7. Read them their fortune and their lucky number!

Topic based teaching - Weather

Introducing the topic

Total Physical Response

• Bringing in the items of clothing will make meaning clear.

Weather weather weather weather