Articles tagged ‘Speaking Activities’
“The Art Of Questioning”: How To Get A Discussion Going
By Katie | January 7th, 2008 |
4 Comments »
Do you have a specific strategy for getting the discussion going when your questions receive blank stares?
I came across some tips for group discussions from a Princeton handbook for teaching assistants which has some interesting, if not always totally relevant, insight on leading lively discussions.
Keep in mind that the questions given as examples are geared [...]
Leading Group Discussions
By Katie | January 7th, 2008 | Add a Comment »
“Many experienced instructors consider leading small-group discussion more difficult and more challenging than lecturing to a room of two hundred. The lecturer has significant control about what happens in the classroom, while the discussion leader shares control and direction with the students. The best-laid plans must yield to the never wholly predictable factors of the [...]
Teaching Prepositions
By Katie | November 28th, 2007 | 5 Comments »
When I google or yahoo “teaching prepositions” and “preposition games” I don’t find much that I would be able to use in a communicative-ish class of adults. Much is geared towards kids – often native English speaking kids – and much consists of written practice (which is not at all hard to find by paging [...]
Activities For Revising Or Practicing Tenses
By Katie | November 27th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
In my experience, as long as you plan well, it’s fairly easy to present tenses but much harder to find good communicative practice. You can present present perfect without talking, you can teach past continuous without your left shoe (and don’t get me wrong, students will enjoy this!) but you don’t need a drawn-out [...]
Teaching About Prejudice?
By Katie | August 3rd, 2007 | Add a Comment »
Transitions Abroad is an excellent resource for those who pine about travel, work or study in foreign places. The English Teaching section is especially useful for general advice on job-hunting as well as country-specific advice, links and resources.
One article recently caught my eye because it is not about getting a job – but rather [...]
The Beauty Of Pairwork
By Katie | July 26th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
Students don’t always love it, but I do. Why? They get a chance to speak, speak, speak; especially when the class is large, pairwork means each person has a chance to speak for much longer than in whole class activities. Imagine sixty minutes, with each of 15 students speaking equally – that’s [...]
TEFL Warmers From Dave’s ESL Cafe Idea Cookbook
By Katie | July 24th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
Facing a class for the first time can be hard – but as the teacher you’re the one who is supposed to get them to relax. I had a look around the Idea Cookbook at Dave’s ESL café, a resource I unfortunately sometimes neglect, to see what others have recommended. Here are some [...]
My Dream Team ESL Syllabus of Social Issue in Current Film
By Katie | July 10th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
It should be no surprise to TEFL Logue readers that I like my social issues. I also enjoy using film in class, though I don’t do it nearly as much as I’d like to. For these reasons, I’ve come up with my dream team ESL syllabus for, I don’t know, a course on [...]
Interview With Sean Banville Of Breaking News English
By Katie | June 16th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
Breaking News English creator Sean Banville was kind enough to share some background info on himself and his lessons as well as some practical advice in a TEFL Logue email interview. I’m personally pretty selective about what online material I use in classes, but I can’t speak highly enough about Breaking News English: visit [...]
Salvaging A Lesson That Isn’t Working (Or, Interview With Sean Banville of Breaking News English, Part 3)
By Katie | June 16th, 2007 | Add a Comment »
Sean Banville, the mind behind Breaking News English, took the time to do a TEFL Logue email interview (see the earlier portions in Part 1 and Part 2). Here, he describes what he has done in the past with those textbook lessons that just don’t seem to work…
“[When selecting topics for BNE] I try [...]
