Levels: strong pre-intermediate to proficiency.
Ages: older teens and adults.
Type: discussion-based lesson idea, unjumbling questions and conducting a mock speed dating event.
Skills: writing; speaking; listening.
Language focus: vocabulary-building; grammar work on forming questions in English. Continue reading Lesson ideas on dating and relationships 3 – speed dating
Tag Archives: listening
Lesson ideas on dating and relationships 2 – working with a text
Levels: upper-intermediate to advanced.
Ages: older teens and adults.
Type: discussion and grammar dictation/reading tasks based on a text about speed dating.
Skills: reading; writing; speaking; listening.
Language focus: grammar- and vocabulary-building, using (semi-)fixed expressions from the text, and your students’ own words. Continue reading Lesson ideas on dating and relationships 2 – working with a text
Lesson ideas on dating and relationships 1 – conversation
Levels: strong pre-intermediate to proficiency.
Ages: adults.
Type: conversational; vocabulary-building.
Skills: reading; speaking; listening.
Language focus: vocabulary development; skills work. Continue reading Lesson ideas on dating and relationships 1 – conversation
Three things
Levels: pre-intermediate to proficiency.
Ages: older teens and adults.
Type: ice-breaker; developing conversation.
Skills: speaking; listening; reading; writing.
Language focus: reviewing emergent grammar; practising question formation in English; extending vocabulary in a personalised way. Continue reading Three things
Russia in colour 100 years ago: past passives lesson plan
Levels: intermediate to advanced.
Ages: older teens and adults.
Type: using photos as stimuli to produce particular grammatical forms; text reconstruction.
Skills: speaking; listening; reading; writing.
Language focus: past passives; vocabulary to describe some scenes represented in photos. Continue reading Russia in colour 100 years ago: past passives lesson plan
Southbound – song – lesson idea and worksheets
Level: intermediate to advanced.
Ages: older teens and adults.
Type: scanning a text for vocabulary anomalies; listening and responding to a song; various writing- or performing-based follow-on tasks.
Skills: reading; listening and pronunciation; speaking; writing.
Language focus: vocabulary related to travel and moving (and missing) home. Continue reading Southbound – song – lesson idea and worksheets
Staging class debates
Further to Monday’s post on debating the Stop Online Piracy Act, here are a few ideas for staging debates with your class more generally, as a way to revise topic-based vocabulary and language for agreeing, disagreeing, expressing opinions, and so on, in a fun and memorable way. I recommend using these ideas with older teens and adults at intermediate level and above. Continue reading Staging class debates
TD: teaching vocabulary – beyond the top 2,000 words
In this post, I discuss the value and limitations of focussing on the most frequent words of English in class, and share two lesson activities which focus on uncovering language that students already use and find important, or want to use. Continue reading TD: teaching vocabulary – beyond the top 2,000 words
12 ways of creating stories with your EFL students
Embedding target vocabulary and grammar points in vivid and emotionally-engaging stories is a great way to help your students remember more from their lessons, and remember them better. Here, I share twelve ways you can create stories with your learners. Continue reading 12 ways of creating stories with your EFL students
6 activities with index cards
Here, I share a few different ways you can use a very simple prop – some blank index cards (or just any scraps of paper big enough for your students to write some phrases on). Continue reading 6 activities with index cards
