Building sentences

We can find language everywhere; therefore, it’s easy to see that we need language and how to build correct linguistic structures to understand and communicate with others. Children have to know the correct form of affirmative, negative, and interrogative sentences, and there are plenty of methods and activities to improve their linguistic skills. For instance, we can use small cards which contain the following words: adverb, adjective, verb, noun, and preposition. We can use this method as a kind of game in which kids will learn and enjoy at the same time while they're using them.

Firstly, we distribute all the cards in 5 bags; all of them should contain several examples of every word mentioned before. Secondly, we ask our students to form groups of 5 or 6 people. When everyone is ready, the teacher will give a bag to each group. Then, we will ask them to take all the cards and, between them, discuss the words that they could use to form sentences. For example, if someone gets the verb card, this person has to find a proper verb which matches well to the previous word. At the end of the lesson, we could ask some groups to share their results with their classmates. If the students ask for some help while they’re doing this activity, the teacher may offer it to them.

A flower story

    Using drama activities has clear advantages for language learning. Drama activity can be very useful in order to develop students’ communicative competence. These activities would help them in the development of oral communication skills and reading and writing well. In addition, drama activities can involve children at many levels, not only on the linguistic one but also on the kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, personal, interpersonal and even naturalistic intelligences. I want show a task which engages most or all of the intelligences. I think that  is a interesting activity to do in class. Maybe you can use it with your students!

     We can take a real plant with a flower to class. We introduce the students to the story of a plant and some specific vocabulary about that, so that they became familiar with it and they could use it appropriately.

    We draw the picture of the plant on the board and ask: what’s this? (a plant/ a flower) We can ask: where do flowers grow? (a garden ,a park).We can point and say the names of the parts: roots, stem, leaves, flower. We can tell pupils that plants begin as a seeds. We point to the seed and ask: What helps seeds grow? (Sun and rain).We tell pupils to stand up. We explain that they are seeds growing into flowers. We ask pupils to copy us. We crouch down and we say slowly: start to grow up and up to the sky. We stretch up and stand on our toes. We hold our hands together at eye level. We say: The sun shines (open fingers a little), the rain falls (open fingers more), and the sun comes out again (open hands and fingers to represent the flower). We say: It’s a beautiful flower.

    We read the flower story: One day, a little bird drops a seed in a garden and flies away. Soon roots begin to grow. Then the seed begins to grow. It grows up and up and up to the sky. The sun shines, the rain fall then the sun shines again. A flower opens. The Little bird flies back to the garden. It looks down and sees the flower. It’s beautiful.

    We can draw a time line on the board. We can show what happens in a story on a time line. We point the beginning of the line (the past), we point to each step (the end of the line is the present).Students can draw a time line about the flower story.

    Once we make sure that all the students had comprehended the story and learn some vocabulary. We divided them into groups. They can mime the story. Pupils mime actions of the bird, the seed, the sun and the rain. Once each team had their characters assigned, students can write their scenes and dialogues. They need a text easy for them to remember when they perform it. So they can improvise the dialogue in case they got blocked when performing the play.

    Through all these activities, children may discover different styles and registers which are very different from their everyday speech as well as the use of verbal and non verbal devices. Drama activities can provide students with an opportunity to use language to express various emotions, to solve problems and to make decisions. Students can improve self confidence, use of language, vocabulary and a good capacity for cooperative work in the classroom. Children learn to use language effectively and creatively while they are experiencing different points of views. Drama activities are a highly valuable as well as an instructional tool. Approaching learning in this manner allows a wider range of students to successfully participate in classroom learning.

Class project: English magazine

    When I try to recall my EFL classes in school, I remember a boring textbook. I remember doing many exercises but with very little variety among them (most were fill-in-the gaps), and write some artificial text with no purpose. English language teacher have always resorted to using a textbook when teaching English as a second language in the school, but sometimes this method don’t work because this book don’t have nothing in common with students' interests of at that age.

 

    Something completely different can help to learning and teaching English. Class projects can be an excellent way to focus the whole class and get them together towards a common goal. Students learn better when they can work together in groups. Collective work can activate and build background knowledge. We can ask our students if they would like a magazine in English about our town. We ask children for ideas for a name for the magazine and hold a class vote to decide on the name.

 

    On the board we write the different sections that magazines have. We will try to include as much variety as possible so there’s something for everyone (our monuments, environmental problems, our heroes, sports pages, film reviews, news, photo stories, comic strip, puzzles, music, interviews, recipes, jokes, etc.)

 

    We will negotiate with children about how long they will need to produce their section and allow sufficient class time for help each group and provide language input and error correction. We can introduce these sections to produce first.

 

Our monuments: Students read texts about our different monuments and complete some questions about them with the help of all members of the group. Then, using cooperative technique, they change their groups and complete a chart about all monuments where each student writes about his or her monument. Students complete a short text about monuments of our town and they can create a beautiful craft: tourist guide.

 

Environmental problems: Pupils create this section to write about environmental problems, their consequences and possible solutions. Students complete a letter for the major and write about environmental problems and how we should solve them. Then, we use "rotating paper" cooperative technique to correct friends’ worksheets. They can practice "should and shouldn´t" to give advice about how to solve some of these problems using an oral activity called "I give one, I take one”. This activity consists on asking a question to a classmate and getting the answer, and after that changing their roles.

 

Who is your hero? Not all heroes wear capes. We meet a lot of heroes in our lives: family, teachers, doctors, policemen... Humanity is incredible and we need to be inspired by those who are near us. We can describe our heroes for the class.

 

    I think that  is a interesting activity to do in class. Maybe you can use it with your students!

Speaking

                    Speaking is very important for learners and I can say that it is the most important one, but of course one cannot have it without other skills. Many English learners do not care about speaking in the beginning of learning. They think that they can speak after they acquire all other skills. For them the most important ones are grammar and  memorizing words without paying attention to pronunciation. That's the reason why in many non-English speaking countries people are good at English grammar and reading or writing but cannot speak. They understand more than they speak.
                    According to me, as a teacher, first thing that we should before starting teaching English is to emphasize the importance of speaking. We should teach them speaking before grammar. That's how kids learn any language. First listen and gathered comprehensible inputs and step by step, they learn how to use it in conversation. Afterwards, teaching grammar would be easier and more meaningful.
                 From that point here is the question: How should we teach speaking? There are many ways to teach speaking. Let's mention some of them. The first and for me the most important one: Games. Play games with your students. They acquire language better when they have fun. Here are some games to play: Simon says, Charades, What's time Mr. Wolf, Snakes and ladders, I spy, Hangman. Let's explain one of them. Simon says: It is very easy to play. You give your students order as saying " Simon says rise your hand" they all rise their hand, "Simon says put your hands down" they all do and then you say " look at right" they should not look because it is not a order from Simon. It would be funny if some obey what you say.
                To make children speak, you may ask them some interesting questions like " what would you do if you were a giant", "If you had a chance to be a Disneyland characters, which one you would choose?" You can use short stories and songs to make them speak. Children love them.
               You may find many ways to teach speaking, but most importantly you should use English in class as much as you can. Try to speak English all time. It can be difficult for them but if you do it correctly, I mean if you make them understand without translating, it would be very good for them. Children need comprehensible inputs to speak and it is okay if they do not speak for a while. However, they always speak when they are ready.
  

Reading is fun!!!

 

    When we read English, we increase the amount and intensity of input, increase the reception and the production skills and provide effective practices that give clues of meaning.Reading offers a wide range of vocabulary and it deals with matters that are related to personal experiences as seeing, listening, moving, imitating, singing, playing, and speaking.Children enjoy listening and reading stories because it is a great way to multiple interpretations and opinions.   So here we want to share with you our tips on books which we consider useful in learning and teaching English.


    Before choosing a book, we will consider different aspects: the book need be adapted and simplified for children whose first language is not English. The story must be relevant, interesting and meaningful. The book must provide attractive support to help students understand content. We can identify linguistic objectives as vocabulary and sentence structures that we want students to learn.


    Firstly, we can provide a context for the story. Using "thinking strategies" before introducing a new topic is very important for students to know their previous knowledge and the new ones. It is great "scaffolding" for new learning. We can ask them about the title so that we could ascertain their level of knowledge concerning this subject. We can show them the cover of the book and pictures.


    Then, we can introduce the main characters and new vocabulary using flashcards. We can present the materials in different ways.  Next, we will read slowly and clearly making use of gestures, making eye contact, good body language, facial expressions, intonation, and asking and answering questions that could help students follow the story.


    We need to surprise them. Therefore, we can complete arts and crafts projects about the story. Each student can create their own art and craft and show it to the class. We can organize role play activities about story too.

 

It's time for us to join these experiencies!




 

Teaching English to Kids

              People think that Teaching English to children is easier then teaching to adults. I am totally disagree with that. Adults want to be taught  grammar and when you give them it, that’s enough for them. You can make them satisfied if you are good at grammar. However, it doesn’t work in the same way with children because children do not care about grammar. They also do not care about learning English. The only thing they want is to enjoy. That makes teaching difficult because having knowledge about English is certainly not enough. You have to challenge yourself to teach them.  Children get bored easily, that’s another difficulty.

              So, how should we teach English to Children? I have some tips:

-                             As children want to have fun, we should make the class fun. Having fun is so important for children that you can teach them all day if you keep them having fun.

-                                 The best way for children is to play games. Find games about your topic that you want to teach them and play with them. They love it. If you can teach your topic through a game, do it. It is fabulous; but if you can’t find a game, just find any game that you can use before or after class or whenever you feel they get bored.

-                           To do all that a teacher must be hardworking but that’s not enough. Creativity is very important. You have to find a way not to make them bored. Plan your lesson earlier and always try to find an attractive way to draw their attention. You should also use your creativity during class, because children can do or say anything which sometimes surprises you.

-                              You don’t have to do your all classes indoor. Take children outside. They will love it. You can play more games and to be outside at class time makes them curious.

-                              Children have so much energy. They don’t like sitting. If you ask them to sit and listen to you without doing anything, probably they won’t like the class and won’t pay attention. They will look forward for break. That’s why, you need to make them active. You may use games or anything comes to your mind.

              As you can see, it isn’t easy to be a teacher of children. If you are, I wish these tips will work for you

Why not bring humor into the English class?

 

    "But why do I have to go? School is not fun!” That quote could be from a child, asking his mom why he has to go every single day to this place that he was told was going to be a lot of fun, and it’s not. We know that teachers are not selected or trained to be comedians. However, we know that a positive climate for learning, and enjoyment, is correlated with retention of information.

    Doing some activity this way, could be interesting. How and why? Let's talk about it.  Humor reduces stress and tension in the classroom and promotes creative understanding. But most of all, it brings a sense of pleasure and appreciation and creates a common, positive emotional experience that the students share with each other and the teacher.

How would this activity work?

•Only "no hurt" humor is acceptable.

•Have joke time, we can ask students to bring in jokes to share, either to start the day, to make a transition between break and the following class, or at the end of the day.
•Have a funny dress-up time.
•Build creative and humorous thinking by showing pictures without captions and asking students to create them  individually, in pair-shares, or small groups.

    There is a wide range of activities that can be done; however, we are focusing now on creating a comic strip. To start with it, children should be divided into groups in which they will work together. Once divided, the teacher could revise some jokes before they start working. Then, the groups would draw their comic strip and, here's the main point, they would try to present it to the rest of the class.

 

    Let's add some more enjoyment to class. We need a smile and a little levity in class. It's time for us educators to take humor more seriously.


-Teacher: Where are you from?

-Pupil: Spain

-Teacher: Which part?
-Pupil: All of me!

 
-Teacher: Why were you late this morning?

-Pupil: I squeezed the toothpaste too hard and it took me half an hour to get it all back into the tube again!

 -Teacher: Did you find the exam questions easy?
 -Pupil: Oh yes, I found the questions all right, it’s the answers I couldn’t find!

 

 

 

 

 

Learning and “Puzzling”

Have you ever thought about mixing puzzles and learning? Children love playing games and learning at the same time. Therefore, using puzzles to learn new vocabulary and building sentences would be an unique and attractive way for kids to improve their linguistic skills.

First of all, we must know their linguistic level to adapt the activity to their previous knowledge. Then, we can choose if kids are going to use pieces which contain only one letter or a full word. When us teachers give the one-letter puzzle to them, we may ask them to see an object and pick the right letter pieces to build the word that defines the object they choose. 

They can do the same with full-word puzzle pieces. For instance, we ask them to build a sentence which has to contain two subjects, connectors, verbs, and complements. When all the students finish their sentences, they can show them to their classmates.

This puzzle game is another option to improve their linguistic skills through having fun and learning. Also, the students can do the activity in groups of 5 people. Each team can talk, discuss, and choose with every member's help and collaboration.

Do you know how increase the intensity of input?

    One way to increase the amount and intensity of input necessary for implicit and subconscious EFL learning in instructed contexts is to provide enough exposure for implicit language learning, to increase the reception and the production skills and to provide with effective practices that give young learners clues of meaning. You may think, how can I do it or where I can find some information?

 

     We can teach children to listen and to pay attention in the EFL primary class with multimodal and multisensory techniques. With experiences such as:  seeing, listening, moving, touching, imitating, singing, playing, experimenting, manipulating and speaking are very important. With  techniques such as: making eye contact, facing the speaker, no interrupting, good body language, interest facial expressions, and asking and answering questions.
 

We have some examples will serve to illustrate a few strategies:
 

·        Listening games: Children can listen to sounds in and around the classroom (wind blowing, traffic noise, ticking clock, bird dinging) then children report orally to us about the sound.
 

·        Handclapping games and body percussion: Children can experiment with sounds made with different parts of the body (clap hands, click fingers, tap knees)
 

·        Circle time: is a teaching practice that can be conducted at any time of the school day, from morning rituals (greeting, register, weather, calendar, story time) to singing time and story time. In circle time, children can listen to stories; tell stories and narrative their experiences.
 

·        Musical activities: we can make up our own songs. With the use of songs; They will develop both comprehension skills: listening to the songs, and reading the lyrics, and production skills (singing) and writing (creating and/or changing lyrics),with the use of songs our students can dance whatever they like to express their emotions or make gestures following the song directions. Children can pay attention to the lyrics and learn about other cultures.
 

·        Storytelling: Children make indirect and unconscious language learning meaningful through picture books being read in class.

 

It's time for you to join these experiences.

 

Cooking... inside the classroom?

What if we turned our common classroom into a restaurant? Maybe not literally. But doing some class this way, could be interesting. How and why? Let's talk about it.

Firstly, motivation is a very important element in education and teaching. It's been proven through years that just listening, repeating and jotting down in their notebooks the stuff that pupils learn at class is not the best way to motivate them. So, for example, when we talk about food and cooking, wouldn't it be better to make practical lessons rather than theory? Also, it's funnier for children.

There is a wide range of activities that can be done, however, we are focusing now on creating and cooking a selfmade recipe. How would this activity work? To start with it, children should be divided into groups in which they will work together. Once divided, the teacher could revise some basic food vocabulary before they start working, nonetheless, this can be skipped. Then, the groups would write down their recipe and, here's the main point, they would try to cook it and present it to the rest of the class. The cooking day can be done a different day so that they can buy the ingredients, and of course, we should limit them to easy stuff, they can't bake a cake in a class.

With this activity, we make them revise food and cooking vocabulary, also we make them talk since they have to discuss a recipe and show it to their classmates. And moreover, we make them cook. Since nowadays it is important to correlate subjects and encourage students' autonomy, letting them cook by themselves is something useful.

To sum up; we have an activity to make a different class, motivating students not only to use their English, but also trying to do things they may not be used to do (like cooking). Therefore, trying out new and innovative stuff is definitely something that we should try to do in the future, encouraging our students to learn in a different way. And making a restaurant out of a classroom can be a good start.

Teaching and many ways to learn

In this blog we have written many good tips for teachers. It is easy to see that our activities are very various. But is it relevant? Can we found one teaching style for everyone or should we try to find different teaching methods?

Howard Gardener (1943) is an american neurologist who made a theory of multiple intelligences. He figured out that after brain damage his patients often lost some of their abilities; one patient could not speak anymore but she was still able to make music. Gardener made a hypothes of people having multiple intelligences in distinct parts of their brain. He made a list of different kind of intelligences: musical-rhythmic,visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, existential, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic.

Scientists are not sure if there is more or less than 8 different kind of intelligences, how these abilities are working etc. But even if Gardeners theory have been critisezed as teachers we can found some very interesting ideas for bringing to a classroom. And for sure our classrooms won't be only full of different kind of intelligences... it will be also full of personalities. Some of students have a great attitude of learning, some of them not have it yet, some of them get bored very easly and some of them are scared of new things. Some of them are more indepentend than others. Some learners have supporting family, some of them do not have. Some students trust themself and some of them believe that they are unable to do things. We have uncountless number of variouses.

This situation can be very challenging to a teacher. There is possibilities that only one kind of teaching-method will support only one kind of learners. Also it is possible that students get tired of doing the same thing all the time and even good method does not work anymore. That is the most important reason to us to learn about differences. A flexible, versatile teaching can give possibilities to students to learn and also try new methods of learning. And by this we do not mean that we only need to do radical assignments and forget a"traditional" teaching. We need to remember that some students might found it the most useful way to learn. Knowing students and be open-minded to many ways to learn... that might be a key for working with a heterogeneous classroom.

Flashcards: learn and have fun in English

Flash cards are a good tool for English teachers and learners because they can be fun and motivational and they can be used in different ways. Flash cards can also improve relationships because students need time to talk to each other and discuss.

Teaching via flash cards is an efficient methodology which involves images and words, both related to the same thing or concept. This way of teaching and learning is very visual, and it is not only required to use vision but hearing and the capacity to read as well.

For instance, we can use flascards if we want to do memory activities, drilling activities or word races. Also, it is important to know that they can be used anytime: as a motivating game to start a lesson, as an activity to learn new vocabulary in the L2 or even to improve students' abilities and knowledge.

Now we are going to see an activity which can be very useful, attractive, and motivating for both teachers and students.


Memorise the words

• Select a bunch of flash cards and put them on the floor, so they can see both image and word. Let them read and see the flash cards for two minutes.
• Then, put them all upside down so they can not see the image that represents the word they can read on that side of the flash card.
• Finally, tell each student to pick up a flash card and draw the image that they think that word represents on a piece of paper.

Teaching English through 'songs'

Teaching English through 'songs' 

Since we agree that applying old traditional methods make our lessons incomprehensible and lead students to be confused, we have to develop engaging techniques to make the learning process meaningful. It is difficult for students to develop their language skills by attending long last classes and listening more and more rules/information about the target language or dealing with  difficult tasks. By the way, for an interesting lesson, it is important to create meaningful context.

So, here I  offer  'teach English through songs' as an authentic text. Songs are one of the most enchanting and culturally rich resources that can easily  be used in language classrooms. They are effective means of learning for both adults and young learners. For me, if I memorize a song, even after two or there years without listening, I can remember the lyrics, the rhythm etc... 

One of the big problems we all face, whether teaching English to children or adults, is maintaining learners' interest throughout our lessons. Consequently, we often have to be very creative in the techniques we use. What makes music such a great teaching tool is  its universal appeal, connecting all cultures and languages. This makes it one of the best and most motivating resources in the classroom, regardless  of the age or background of the learner. 

( Adam J. Simpson,2015) 

When it comes to choosing song, think about; 

•  the language level of your class

• the age of the learners 

• the interests 

• what you are going to teach? ( the grammar point to be studied etc..)    

For example, be careful to use repetitive songs for young learners, use contemporary or fairly recent pop or rock songs for teenagers and for adults, use songs that are interesting to their age group.
There are many ways for teaching procedure and developing techniques, it mainly depends on the creativity of the teacher. Apart, here is an example belongs to Adam J. Simpson ;

• listen to the song
• ask some questions about the title
• listen the song again, this time with lyrics ( you can make a lyric worksheet as a gap fill, learners can fill in the gaps as they listen)
• focus on a particular verb tense or aspect of grammar ( How many examples you can find of the past simple in the lyrics?)  
• focus on vocabulary, idioms, expressions 
• round things off with some creativity

some examples  of techniques;

• gap filling

• focus questions

• true-false statements 

• put these lines into the correct sequence

• add a final verse

• circle the antonyms/synonyms...                             

some examples of songs;

• for introducing a text that looked at vain people : ''You're so vain'' by Carly Simon

• present tense :  '' let it be'' by Beatles

• present progressive :  '' sailing'' by Rod Stewart 

• present perfect : ''nothing compares to you'' by Sinead O'connor

• and for young learners you can find lots of educational songs on YouTube.

Do you know how scaffolding works or why it is necessary?

    As you may have already seen by the title, the topic of today will be scaffolding. It is important for us as future  teachers to recognize the importance of using scaffolding in our class. This entrance shows how scaffolding can be useful for us.

    Scaffolding was first used by researchers to describe the role adults could play in helping children or novices solve problems in tutoring situations (Wood, Bruner, & Ross, 1976). In education, Scaffolding refers to a variety of  techniques used to move students progressively toward stronger understanding and, greater independence in the learning process. We will provide successive levels of temporary support that will help students reach higher levels of comprehension and skill acquisition that they would not be able to achieve without assistance.

     Our main goal  is to reduce the negative emotions that students may experience when they get frustrated when attempting a difficult task without the assistance, or understanding they need to complete it. Like physical scaffolding, the supportive strategies are incrementally removed when they are no longer needed, and we gradually shift more responsibility over the learning process.

    You may think, how can I do it or where I can find some information? Fortunately, you're reading this blog so you're safe.

We have some examples will serve to illustrate a few scaffolding strategies:

• We will describe how the new lesson builds on the knowledge and skills students were taught in a previous lesson. By connecting a new lesson to a lesson, we show students how the concepts and skills they already learned will help them with the new assignment. Similarly, we may also make explicit connections between the lesson and the personal interests and experiences of the students as a way to increase understanding in the learning process.
• We will give students a simplified version of a lesson or assignment,  and then gradually increases the complexity or difficulty over time. To achieve the goals of a particular lesson, we may break up the lesson into a series of mini-lessons that progressively move students toward stronger understanding.
• We will describe or illustrate a concept, problem, or process in multiple ways to ensure understanding. We may orally describe a concept to students; use  visual aids such as images and graphics to further explain the idea.
• Students are given a model of an assignment they will be asked to complete.  The model provides students  a concrete example of the learning goals they are expected to achieve or the product they are expected to produce.
• Students are given a vocabulary lesson before they read a difficult text. 
• We will describe the purpose of a learning activity, the directions students need to follow, and the learning goals they are expected to achieve. We may give students a handout with step-by-step instructions they should follow.

It's time for us to join these experiences!

 

English and creativity.

When we think of English (as a Foreign Language) classrooms, we normally think of students doing the activities in their workbooks endlessly. Most of us have been through that and we know how dull and tedious an English lesson at school can become.

That's why, as future teachers, we must prepare activities and routines that break with those old stereotypes. For example, stimulating their creativity is always a good thing. Using what has been previously learnt on the lesson (like vocabulary, tenses, etc...), pupils can write a drama play and represent it in front of their mates. Also they can write a tale or draw a comic.

And it is drawing what we are focusing on. A resourceful activity that can be used many times is the so-called "Describe and Draw". In this activity, we can put our students in pairs or in little groups. One of them, thinks of one thing. For example, if we are studying animals, he can think of an animal or even make up their own one. Then, this first student describes the creature to their mates, who will draw it following the instructions.

The results can be very curious and hilarious, and what's more important: this activity makes our pupils use vocabulary, both specific for drawing (draw a line, put a circle, make two lines...) and the one studied. At the same time, they have a lot of fun comparing the results, breaking with the monotony that sometimes our classes might have. Stimulating their creativity is important, and if we can relate that to our subject, which is teaching English, even better!

This is just one of the many examples there are. Hope you found it interesting. We will keep posting.