 Need something quickly!! Put your hand in a drawer or handbag and take out an item. This is your prop. What can you do creatively around it? Let this random item become the basis for vocabulary, asking who owns such an item, "where did you buy yours", "why do people buy these" "do you know how such an item is made" "where is it made". Later, in the computer room, tell students to look up sites like Wikipedia, How things are made sites, to find out about the production and detail of such an item. Examples, keys, various containers, make up, plastic membership cards, tissues.
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 Keep a pile of comics and magazines in the classroom for a variety of activities. These can be used if a quiet reading session is needed to end the lesson, or after a rowdy activity. Pictures from the magazines can be used for writing and conversation prompts. Pair work is fun - students can be given assignments of looking for pictures of vocabulary items, verb activities, and describing things to each other.
 Have students write down 10 words that describe themselves e.g. tall, intelligent, sensitive, hungry. In pairs, have students share their lists. Nice as a warm up or last ten minutes of a class to wind down. Good for vocabulary, and communication giving personal information in pairs
Of course you are doing writing activities in class. Obviously you are using your curriculum to get the basic ideas. But, knowing the drive for teachers to find something different, something interesting and usual, I am aware that there is a constant search for quick prompts to spark something new. Esl Ideas.com has writing ideas listed simply so that you can take a quick scan and find something immediately. Sharing ideas is always good. Something that you do that you feel is boring might be exciting for someone else and vice versa. After all, we tend to follow our own pattern of teaching style. Do take a look here and hopefully you will find some suitable ideas for your classes.
The James Bond movies are a delight for fans of action, high tech and flair in fashion and modernity. Each of the James Bond movies reflect the time, (for example, the James Bond made in the 1980's reflects fashion and music from that time,) from fashion to fad. These movies are really just for fun, and adult learners can be prepped with a large vocabulary list if the texts, theme and ideas are researched a little on the Internet prior to the movie screening. There is a lot available for material, from music scores to the influence of the series on the spy world in fiction.
 The most basic of skills in language learning is learning to read and write the alphabet. Through movement, drama and games this learning can be enhanced. For young learners, moving and shaping their bodies to form letters can be really fun and add to the understanding of the shapes of the letters. Check out the Ready LessonPage plan on learning the alphabet Enjoy.
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Having students give presentations in class is excellent for building confidence and practicing language. It involves preparation and repetition, and gives the participants a platform to be the focus and the entertainer.
Preparing for a presentation means the student has to read, write and develop ideas on topics given by the teacher. Thus, the assignment of a presentation can be given as homework, and the results - the presentation - can be an enjoyable, shared experience in the classroom.. 
Requests from teachers for very basic, beginner's dialog scripts have lured me into the writing of these. Keeping vocabulary simple, useful and interesting, and at the same time using grammar at its simplest is challenging. Dialogs, of course, always involve the action that happens between the lines, so that even simple, perhaps "boring" looking dialog could include some original ideas behind the lines. As I write the lines, my very active dramatic mind foresees possibilities, so I hope you get to enjoy the dialogs as they are brought to life by your students.
Although students are only at the beginning in their new language, they are adults with a full range of originality, life experience and sophistication. Therefore, it is important to encourage students to add a dramatic element that makes the dialog come alive. 
Abstract Dialog Scripts are texts which don't have a direct message. The students have to find meaning within the words and act out the scenario so that the texts make sense. These always produce a variety of interesting results and can also start with the simplest of words so that beginners can do well too. Great for drama classes, these texts produced intrigue and a lot of conversation by the pairs who have to decide what is happening and then perform a logical scene. This site has a large number of these abstract dialogs and list of topics for teachers to write their own. Here is an example of a dialog script "Unexpected".
We've tried everything to get our students to speak, right? Practice of all kinds - from dialogs to presentations to games, we try them all. Many students will ask the advice of their teacher to help them find ways to improve their speaking skills. There are many ideas for speaking practice, but the essence is that the student him/herself has to be the one to talk.
So, examples of all kinds of practice are necessary to offer students as an option. Talk, talk, talk is the only way to improve in speaking. |
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