Level: pre-intermediate to advanced.
Ages: teens to adults.
Type: class mingle; text reconstruction; choral and individual pronunciation work on conveying emotions; group- and pair-work.
Skills: sentence grammar awareness; speaking; listening; writing.
Language focus: sentence-level grammar; textual cohesion. Continue reading Textual Cohesion Mingle
Tag Archives: pronunciation
“Hurt Feelings” by Flight of the Conchords – lesson plan
Level: strong pre-intermediate to intermediate.
Ages: teens or (young) adults.
Type: raising awareness of phonemes; song; gapfill.
Skills: pronunciation; listening; writing and speaking (in the follow-up).
Language focus: textual cohesion (grammar and vocabulary); informal vocabulary. Continue reading “Hurt Feelings” by Flight of the Conchords – lesson plan
Interpreting Dialogue
Levels: strong pre-intermediate to advanced.
Ages: teens; adults.
Type: creating, performing and reviewing dialogues based on short, authentic text.
Skills: listening; speaking; reading; writing; pronunciation (conveying feelings and status).
Language focus: grammar and vocab structures as they arise; formal and informal spoken registers. Continue reading Interpreting Dialogue
Brainstorming with Beginners
Level: beginner.
Ages: adults.
Type: creating a poster of English words and phrases; “breaking the ice”.
Skills: writing; pronunciation (of the words and phrases that arise).
Language focus: vocabulary. Continue reading Brainstorming with Beginners
DIY Board Game
Levels: strong elementary to advanced.
Ages: kids; teens; adults.
Type: board game; conversations.
Skills: listening; speaking; writing; pronunciation (difficult phonemes).
Language focus: question forms; vocab revision. Continue reading DIY Board Game
Intonation awareness – Football Fever
Levels: pre-intermediate to advanced.
Scope: teens; adults.
Type: responding to excited sports commentary; dictogloss.
Skills: listening; writing; pronunciation (sentence stress and chunking, conveying feelings through intonation).
Language focus: grammar and vocab structures (and register) from the commentary. Continue reading Intonation awareness – Football Fever
Shakespeare – Julius Caesar lesson
Level: advanced.
Ages: older teens; adults.
Type: encouraging imaginative responses to and engagement with two speeches from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
Skills: listening; speaking; reading; writing; pronunciation (individual words, sentence stress & chunking, conveying emotion through pauses and intonation patterns).
Language focus: grammar and vocab as it arises. Continue reading Shakespeare – Julius Caesar lesson
Using Poems to Practise Pronunciation
Levels: upper-intermediate to advanced.
Ages: older teens; adults.
Type: focussing on pronunciation through a recorded poem and work with the Sound Foundations phonetic chart.
Skills: listening; pronunciation (phonemes and sentence stress).
Language focus: vocabulary from the poem; metaphor. Continue reading Using Poems to Practise Pronunciation
Sentence Stress through Obama’s inauguration speech
Levels: intermediate to advanced.
Ages: older teens; adults
Type: listening for key/ prominent words in a real speech
Skills: listening; pronunciation (intonation and stress patterns in spoken English, mimicking an accomplished orator).
Language focus: any vocab as it arises. Continue reading Sentence Stress through Obama’s inauguration speech
Adjectives or Personality Types at a Party
Levels: pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate.
Ages: older kids; teens; young adults.
Type: role-play; revising personality adjectives; games.
Skills: listening; speaking; pronunciation (intonation patterns displaying personality types).
Language focus: vocab – personality adjectives. Continue reading Adjectives or Personality Types at a Party
