Some half baked ideas and others, carbonized...
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I know that I am generalising, but so often workbooks are relegated to the ‘also ran’ or ‘lemon’ status of materials. Lacking vivid magazine-like colour and language (read grammar) input, workbook exercises are often given as a homework after thought… Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a very simple activity that is very useful to have in your toolbox as a no materials activity.
Aims: Fluency in speaking, listening and group negotiation. Giving advise and suggestions.
Skills: Speaking and listening.
Materials: A board and board pen.
Level: Elementary and above.
Preparation time: None, 
save a little time thinking… Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a very simple activity that is very useful to have in your toolbox as a no materials activity.
Aims: Question forms and demonstrative pronouns. Giving personal information/getting to know you.
Skills: Speaking and listening
Materials: A board and board pen.
Level: All but the most early beginners.
Preparation time: None save a little time thinking… Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a very simple activity that is very useful to have in your toolbox as a no materials (save a die) and no preparation required…
Aims: Question and answer forms, targeted vocabulary recycling.
Skills: Speaking and listening
Materials: Set of dice for learners - or, if you have internet and a large enough screen, why not try a virtual die. Here is one link for an online die.
Level: All but the most early beginngers.
Preparation time: None 
Read the rest of this entry »
Do you teach speaking with few or no materials? Here are some speaking activities that you can try with your classes. Read the rest of this entry »
Here is a selection of links for learners to use for their own language learning purposes. There are links to resources under the following categories:
- language links
- topics: Texts to read and listen to, pronunciation practice, spelling practice, …
- listening: over 400 activities.
- native speaker: VOA Special English - limited to 1500 lexical items.
- on line dictionary: each word in the definition has clickable links.
- ask your questions: a learner forum.
- toefl links: these are pre iBIT TOEFL.
- toefl reading
- toefl listening
- toefl writing
- toefl grammar
- grammar: common errors, verbs as well as noun phrase grammar.
- vocabulary: includes some quizzes.
Should any of these links not work, please let me know.
If anyone would like their own link to be included, please let me know.
Why not ask your learners to write reviews and post them here?
This is an activity that requires no setting up and can be done at the drop of a hat just the kind of activity that I love to have in my toolbox! Essentially, the idea is to promote automatization through quick responses, under moderately stressful conditions.
Aim: learners will recycle vocabulary and/or create short sentences under moderately stressful conditions.
Materials: none - don’t you just love it 
… Read the rest of this entry »
Activities for developing and activating vocabulary in the English classroom (the original idea came from Joanna Stirling July 2000 Bell Teacher Training Summerfest)
One constantly hears of presenting this that and the other. In fact in some institutions, the word “present” seems to be repeated one hundred and one times more than the word “recycle”… Read the rest of this entry »
This milling activity is very simple. Each student has a different sequential series written on a strip of paper. Their task is to find the participant wıith the exactly the same sequence as them self. For this to be a speaking and listening task, monitor the learners carefully to ensure they don’t show their sequences to people. Read the rest of this entry »
This type of activity lends itself to ımproving group cohesion through a cooperative or collaborative task involving listening and speaking.
Perhaps you are very limited in terms of resources for teaching, or you find your resources are inadequete to your learners’ needs. Here are some ideas that you can use with texts. I developed this list while working in Azerbaijan where we only used authentic material - for every level, including beginners… Read the rest of this entry »
Drawing dictation is an activity adapted from Christopher Sion’s excellent: Recipes for Tired Teachers.
Download the plan here
Download the key here.
Aim: To introduce and recycle simple lexis related to geometry in a project.
Level: Pre-int and higher.
Materials: The plan and key.
Time: For all stages, allow 180 minutes depending on how you exploit opportunities for recycling.
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