Starting in the New Year

Hi teachers! Starting in the New Year can be tough, with students who aren't ready to come back and the excitement of the holidays over.  So one way to get them into the swing of things again is to use ice-breakers and games to talk about the things that happened over the holiday season and set some goals for the new year.

Boggle's World ESL has a great selection of worksheets on New Year's resolutions that are divided into levels for beginners, intermediate and advanced students.  http://bogglesworldesl.com/new_year_worksheets.htm

If you're a subscriber to ESL-Library, there are lesson plans there for beginner and intermediate students.

Have a great start in the New Year!

Teaching Argumentation in the ESL Classroom

There are many reasons why teaching ESL students how to argue is important.  First, it's important for them to think critically in the workforce and make decisions based on facts and reasons instead of simply using their own emotions.  Secondly, being able to articulate clearly a fact and learning how to support that fact with data is an important part of being able to function in a work environment.

Here's a link to a Dartmouth University's writing lab with lots of information about argumentation.  http://writing-speech.dartmouth.edu/teaching/first-year-writing-pedagogies-methods-design/teaching-argument

ReadWriteThink.org has a great resource for teachers to help students distinguish between persuasive writing and fact-based argumentation.  http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/developing-evidence-based-arguments-31034.html

Another good resource that addresses the specific needs of ELL students is here.  http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/apr14/vol71/num07/Teaching-Argument-Writing-to-ELLs.aspx

If you are looking for a resource for topics to argue, here's a great resource that has current events that are easily argued. http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/category/student-opinion/

Here's another site that has the pros and cons of 52 controversial issues.  http://www.procon.org

This site gives a long list of teaching resources concerning argumentation.  http://www.webenglishteacher.com/argument.html

If you are interested, there are a lot of MOOCS that address this issue.

Have fun and good luck!!

Vocabulary Acquisition

There are a number of reasons why students find it hard to learn vocabulary.  Older students sometimes have a bigger challenge than younger ones do, but in general, if students don't use the vocabulary they learn on a continual basis they will forget it.  It's therefore important for them to use and repeat new vocabulary often.

There are several fun ways for students to practice vocabulary.  Here's a link to a site that lists some fun ways for students to practice newly acquired vocabulary and use it in a meaningful way.  http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Koprowski-RecylingVocabulary.html

Remember repetition is the key to learning and retaining new vocabulary.

Idioms in English

There are so many idioms in the English language that we don't even think about.  Some are funny and some not so much, but they make our language very colorful.

There's a list of commonly used idioms and their explanations here: http://www.usingenglish.com/reference/idioms/ 

Here's a cool activity where students can make their own books full of funny idioms.  http://getinthefold.blogspot.de/search/label/idioms 

You can also print out these funny illustrated idioms from Kaplan International.  I've printed them and scanned them into a format that is printer friendly.  It's also possible to have them blown up into posters.  https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B91PszKtVKWkTE45Q20wNU5adHc&usp=sharing

There's also a site that has an alphabetical list of idioms in English and their meanings.  http://www.idiomsite.com/  If you want a list that's catagorized then look here http://www.learn-english-today.com/idioms/idioms_proverbs.html I really like that they are separated out by theme.  So if you want you could do a whole month's worth of lessons on idioms separated into topics.

Another idea is to have students go online, read the idiom used in a sentence and then guess the meaning.  You could also make up sentences and have them put in the right idiom as a class.  If you used a PowerPoint or projector it would go a lot faster.  But an alternative idea is to have students make up their own sentences.  Here's the link http://www.manythings.org/slang/slang7.html.

I've had a lot of fun getting students to act out the idiom on the card that they chose and having the other students guess what it is.  The student acting can say one word, but it can't be part of the idiom. Try this in your classes and see what happens.

For those of you who teach in a German speaking country, here's a list of English idioms and their German translations.  http://german.about.com/library/blidioms_eng01.htm

ESL Writing Business Letters

In most countries the basic format for a business letter is just like the format needed to write a business letter in an English speaking country.  Most of the time, the questions come  up with vocabulary and word choice in the body of the letter, or greetings and salutations.  I found a website that can help you answer these questions in a format that is also easy to understand.  http://www.learn-english-today.com/business-english/bus-letter-guidelines.html  (I've also copy and pasted the information into a word document that you can print out https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B91PszKtVKWkcVY2X2pfNEF3NFk/edit?usp=sharing )


Here's a great video to watch online about how to write a business letter which also contains advice about what NOT to write in a letter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egeyiUpFsaw 


I hope this helps!

ESL Confusing Words Materials

There are a lot of words in the English language which can be easily confused with other words.  Of course as students of English it's really difficult to learn which word is the right one in many cases.  The only real solution is to simply learn them.  Okay, so with that being said, let's look at a few of the very confusing words.  I've taken lessons from www.grammar-quizzes.com and modified them into printable form.  So  you can print them out read them through and do the exercises on paper.  If you choose, you can also go on their website and do them online.  (Although, there are a few punctuation mistakes that might make that an interesting task.)

Here's the link to all of the files that I modified into Word documents.
https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B91PszKtVKWkb0d3UWl3Y3kxX1E&usp=sharing

The list currently includes:

Accept/Except
Affect/Effect
And/In addition
Come/Go
Farther/Further
Lose/Loose
Make/Do
Much/Many
There/Their/They're
When/While


ESL Library also has short explanations for some of the commonly confused words.  http://www.esl-library.com/blog/2012/11/22/6-commonly-confused-word-pairs/


I also found a really funny chart with pictures to help students learn the difference in a few homophones: http://www.myenglishteacher.eu/blog/hilarious-homophones-writing-mistakes-to-avoid/ 

Negative Questions

Negative questions can be confusing, even for native speakers, so how do you teach this difficult grammar point to students?  Here are a few tips that I use in my classes that may also help you. 
1. Tell your students that you think that they all like (for example) to watch horror movies.  At this point, if they understand the statement, there are bound to be a few faces made, or a few NOs!! shouted out.
2.  Tell them again, I think you all like to watch horror movies.  Then say, 'Don't you like to watch horror movies?'  The answer should be the same.  Sometimes, you have to tell them that they like something a few times to get their excitement up, then switch to the question so they automatically answer.
3.  Explain that if you use a negative question, it's because you think you already know the answer, but you're not absolutely positive.  So, you want confirmation. 


Making this a game is pretty easy, just use things that you are sure you know about them and say the opposite.  This tactic works well for question tags as well.


I found a video and some exercises that will help along the way and will post them at the bottom.  I'd love to hear from you about your experiences teaching this topic.


Online quiz: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=Practice-Negative-Questions-1


Short explanation that you can copy and print out for students:  http://www.englishpractice.com/improve/negative-questions/


Videos: http://www.engvid.com/negative-questions-in-english/


http://learn-english.wonderhowto.com/how-to/use-negative-questions-english-language-165549/


A game you can make quickly yourself:  http://www.waygook.org/index.php?topic=31771.0

ESL Videos for class

I know students can get bored having English class everyday, so one way to mix it up a bit is to show a video in class.  There are a lot of ways you can do it, i.e. take a cartoon or movie from home, download one off of the internet, or ask the students to bring one of their favorites ( in English).  If they do this, then most likely they know the storyline already and that can make it easier for them to follow along.  Ask questions either during or after the movie to check comprehension and you could even make up a board game based on the movie so they can practice speaking afterwards.  There are lots of fun ideas out there, so just decide what would work best for your class and have fun!


http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/eslvideo/ This is a link to some videos with questions which follow.

Writing for Homeschoolers and ESL

One thing that came easily to me in school was writing.  I didn't really have to try because it's something that I naturally gravitated toward, unlike math and science.  I do know, however, that many students struggle with it and I was reading a homeschooling page tonight that happened to contain some tips for teaching students how to write, that I feel would be useful in both the homeschool and ESL classroom.


Take a look, it might help.  http://pearsonhomeschool.com/index.cfm?locator=PS1r8e&elementType=news&elementId=244163&utm_content=bufferca99f&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer

ESL Software for American English

I'm always looking for ways to help my students outside of class because working professionals don't have time to come to class every day.  I'm part of the homeschooling network in the States and there was an article about learning foreign languages online.  The article includes ESL help, so I went to have a look.  The reviews are great and I agree with the lady who says Rosetta Stone is sometimes difficult to understand.  Pictures are often not enough.  Mango Languages teaches with words and has 60 languages to choose from, so even if you teach in China or Russia, your students can use it because they can simply choose their native language to start with.  I'm going to try to improve my German with it and see what happens. 
http://www.mangolanguages.com/available-languages/ 

Contrast Linkers

There seems to be a lot of confusion about when to use what linking word in sentences.  My students ask me constantly when to use 'but' and 'however'.  My simple answer is 'however' is more formal than 'but'.  For a more in detailed explanation of the difference here's where you should look, it's a link to another blog that has a post on linkers, too.  It may help clear the confusion between 'but' and 'however'.  http://madteachergraham2.blogspot.de/2013/02/linkers-for-contrasts.html   There's only one way to be proficient in using these, sometimes, not so little words and that's to practice them.  There are lots of things you can do to practice them. 


Here's a link to a slide show that helps explain how to use contrast linkers in conversations.
http://www.slideshare.net/kesbu/contrast-linkers-17226445  There's also a really good explanation of the contrast linkers here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nX8N9RiGCZg


Here's a link to some online quizzes  that can be helpful for practicing.  http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/89.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/apps/ifl/worldservice/quiznet/quizengine?ContentType=text/html;quiz=136_contrast 


If your students are having trouble distinguishing the difference between 'because' and 'because of', here's an online practice they could try.  http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/220.html 
One thing that I realize as a teacher and former student is that there sometimes aren't enough hours in the day to do everything you want to do in class and that students need homework assignments that are short and practical.  Here's one that the students can do online http://writeenglish.net/usinglinkers1-1.php  Students can check the answers themselves and see their mistakes so asking questions during the next class is a little easier.  ELTbase also has a good number of worksheets that teachers can print out and use in class, or students can print them out and do them themselves.  http://www.eltbase.com/vtr_refs.php?id=148 






Here are cool vocab games to play. http://teflgeek.net/2014/03/19/six-great-vocab-games/


I really hope some of these links help you prepare for class and you can make it fun for the students, too.  Good Luck!

ESL Easter Lesson Plans

I love spring!  Color comes back into the world, snow melts and the air warms my lungs. I have a collection of fun activities to share with you from the net that will surely cut down on your stress level, warm your heart and make the students happy, too.


One thing I found was a lesson plan for young children.  There are songs and an Easter egg hunt included with a little lesson on prepositions and there's even a pin the tail on the bunny game. Here's the link: http://www.eslkidstuff.com/lesson-plans/easter.html#.UyXjJc9WHs0 


Boggle's World ESL has a lot of fun things to do with students.   My favorite is the Bingo game maker.  You can create as many bingo cards as you need simply by refreshing the bingo game page.  Here's the link: http://bogglesworldesl.com/easter_worksheets.htm  There are also drawing and writing exercises for young children.


If you teach British English and are looking for a gap-fill exercise here's an online one students could do as homework.  http://www.esolcourses.com/content/topics/festivals/easter/reading/easter-gap-fill.html 


One thing that would be easy to teach or practice with students during Easter is prepositions.  I have acquired quite a bit of material for teaching prepositions over the years and you can find the material here: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B91PszKtVKWkTkFPWEpyb2dKYVU&usp=sharing  I hope the explanations and material help in preparing for class. 

Printing on Post Its

This is one very cool idea that I found on Pinterest.  You could use it for so many things, games, vocabulary matching, keeping track of students in the classroom and much, much more.  Go watch the video and spread the word.  http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/clever-classroom-tips-for-elementary-school-teachers 

Earth Day for ESL

When you think about Earth Day, what do you think about?  Planting a tree, recycling, donating time to clean a local highway or along a river?  There are a lot of activities you can join in on in order to celebrate Earth Day.  Getting your students involved is also easy.  There are a lot of learning opportunities on this special spring day.  Here is a link to a website you must be a member of to download the resources, but there are tons of them and it's not expensive.  https://www.esl-library.com/blog/esl-lesson-plans-for-earth-day/  While I'm telling you about websites you have to pay for, here's another http://www.edhelper.com/EarthDay.htm  It costs $19.99 per year and has lots of resources for teachers.
In my last blog post I introduced you to a British website which has resources for homeschoolers.  Here's the link to their Earth Day projects http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/earth-day  You have to join their group, but it's free and loaded with activities for all age groups.


Reading Activities
If you need reading activities for the class, here's a site that has a short article on Earth Day and activities that follow it.  Just copy, paste and print.  http://www.eslholidaylessons.com/04/earth_day.html 


Games
Are you looking for printable material?  One place to look is on this blog http://livespeaklove.com/2012/04/10/earth-day-activities/ She's posted a board game you can easily download and print.
Online Games
This website has a lot of online games for both children and 'young at heart'.  Go play and learn some English, too.
http://www.dltk-kids.com/crafts/earth/games.html


Poster
 If you're looking for a cool Earth Day poster to download and print, here's one http://www.henry4school.fr/Environment/earth-day/pict-posters.htm#poster


Crossword Puzzle
Here's a link to a crossword puzzle http://www.myvocabulary.com//index.php?dir=cross_word&file=attempt_crossword&theme_id=61 


Word Search Puzzle
Here's a link to a printable word search puzzle.  http://homeschooling.about.com/od/holidays/ss/earthprint.htm 


Video
If you want to show a short video about Earth Hour, the hour that everyone should turn off their lights, here's the link http://anglais.over-blog.org/article-earth-hour-a-quiz-47479834.html


Memory Game
I also found a really cool link to an interactive memory game.  http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/usa_game/holiday_memory/help_environment_memory.htm


Interactive Puzzle
If your students like puzzles, but you can't print them out and make them sturdy enough to reuse, here's a link to an interactive puzzle.  http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/usa_game/holiday_puzzles/earthday_tree.htm
Recycling Activities
http://innerchildfun.com/2013/04/recycled-crafts-for-kids.html


There are so many different resources on this site http://www.henry4school.fr/Environment/earth-day/earth.htm that you are sure to find something that you can use.  Go look, and I wish you a lot of fun on Earth Day!

Word Games for ESL

I found a couple of weeks ago a website for parents who are homeschooling their children in the U.K.  I really like the site because there are a lot of resources for young children.  Resources that are for young children are easy to use in the ESL classroom because even adults who are learning English learn like a child in some cases.  Visit Activity Village, join their group and discover the wonderful abundance of material there is to be discovered.  My favorite is the Word Wheel Challenge, where there's a letter in the middle of a circle and letters around it that form a wheel and the children have to come up with as many words as they can using the letter in the middle.  It's a lot of fun.  Take a look http://www.activityvillage.co.uk/word-wheel-challenge-9 

Classroom Instructions

Have you ever wondered why some students get much higher grades than others who seem to be on about the same level?  I definitely have.  One of my theories is that some students understand the instructions better than others do.  It's plausible that some students  simply don't understand the instructions, so they can't do the assignment correctly. 
An easy way to avoid having students get grades they don't necessarily deserve is to make sure that they understand the instructions without giving them in the student's native language.  Teach them the phrases and vocabulary they will need to function successfully in the classroom at the very beginning of  classes. 
Teaching them to ask questions in the correct form is important, even at the beginner level.  Here's a link to a page that will help you do just that.  http://www.eslgold.com/speaking/classroom_questions.html  At the bottom of the page is a link to more conversation practice material. 
If your students want or need to learn basic classroom vocabulary, here's a link that can help them.  http://free-english-study.com/vocabulary/academic-vocabulary-list-1.html  Of course, you could always make flashcards and have them play games with them.  One idea I had was to have students choose a card that is face down, so they can't think of a question ahead of time, and ask a question within a given time frame.  Here's a link to some pre-made flashcards.  http://esl-kids.com/flashcards/classroom.html  If you want to  make a bingo game for the students to play using the classroom vocabulary here's the place to go.  http://www.mes-english.com/flashcards/classroom.php There is also a place on the site to get worksheets that match the flashcards. 


I hope it's a fun time for teachers and students alike and no one gets bored or frustrated at the beginning of a school term.  Good luck!

ESL and Dr. Suess

Growing up in the States I listened to and read Dr. Seuss stories all the time.  He was my own personal hero for almost my entire childhood.  Sure, Mark Twain, Charlotte Bronte and Edgar Allen Poe were in the mix, too, and I loved reading them all, but Dr. Seuss warmed my heart, taught me a lesson and made me laugh the whole time. He did this for at least two generations. 
As an ESL teacher, I try to make my classes fun and interesting for all ages.  I have a Dr. Seuss flip chart with all the basics for a beginner's level course, like colors, months, days of the week, numbers, letters of the alphabet and some basic shapes.  So far my adult students have loved it.  While roaming through a homeschool website I found some other fun projects from Dr. Seuss.  I will put them up here and I hope that they inspire someone to teach their students using one of his wonderful stories.  Please keep in mind that some of the vocabulary he uses isn't real, so the students will need a bit of an imagination to participate in the activities.  If you have a Pinterest account you can find literally hundreds of free downloads for your classroom.  All you have to do is login and search.  I hope you try  using Dr. Seuss in your classrooms and leave me a message as to how the kids (big ones, too) liked working with the materials.


Link to Dr. Seuss lesson plans and activities: http://www.seussville.com/Educators/educatorClassroomResources.php?id=printables
Here's a link to a project page for The Lorax, one of my favorite stories.  You can get your students involved in an eco-friendly project and teach language skills simultaneously. :)
http://www.seussville.com/loraxproject/


Have fun!

Changing the Way We Teach

I have to say that having students come in, sit down, get out their paper, pens and books and listen to me talk for an hour and a half isn't the way I teach.  I thought is was so very boring when I was in school and I think most kids (big kids included) want to do something in class, have fun, set their own goals and work to reach their goals.  I normally teach adults and I know that older people aren't as rambunctious as children.  However, like the lady in the video, I make my classrooms as open and non-constricting to movement as possible.  I want people to get up walk around talk to people and ask questions, but most of all, I want them to be empowered enough to become, more or less, their own teachers.  Yes, I play an important role in the classroom as the only native speaker of English, but they should spend more time talking than I do.  In lower levels, it's difficult to step aside, especially when the grammatical mistakes seem to multiply exponentially, but sometimes allowing students to talk freely helps them build confidence.  Try letting other students be the ones correcting their peers.  Split them into small groups, and have them work together to complete a project, like a role-play. It's a lot of fun for them and it will be fun for you too because you can see in real-time what your students have learned.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fMC-z7K0r4

ESL Gerund forms with 'Get'

Here's a link to a video where a teacher is explaining all of the various ways you can use 'get' in phrasal verbs.  It's informative and I hope you can learn something with it.  I like it because the slang forms are also covered and this is something all students like.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6f6gPG3p60 Once you watch the video, you can take a little test to see if you really understood the  meanings.  http://www.esl-lounge.com/student/phrasal-verbs/4pv17-get.php. If listening to the explanation isn't enough, then try reading it.  Here's a link to help http://www.5minuteenglish.com/apr3.htm


If you happen to be a teacher, here's a link to a page with a fun exercise for students.  It's called 'the get report' so you have to scroll down the page a little to find it.  http://www.teach-this.com/resources/phrasal-verbs  If that isn't enough practice you can find more exercises here, http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-phrasalverbs-toget1.html, http://www.learnenglishfeelgood.com/esl-phrasalverbs-toget2.html  I would copy them to a word doc and print it out for students to do in class.  Of course giving it as an online homework assignment isn't a bad idea either. 


If you are looking for a wider variety of phrasal verbs, not just 'get' check out Lanternfish.  It's one of my favorite websites.  http://bogglesworldesl.com/phrasalverbs.htm


Okay, get down to business and teach something now! :)

ESL Creative Writing

I've been looking for a way to engage my students outside of class and to expose them to English on a daily basis.  The 90 minute classes every week is simply not enough to get them speaking fluently and without being afraid of mistakes.  I've thought about setting up a weekly meeting, but that requires me to free up time most likely on a weekend and I haven't had the time lately. My plan is to start at the end of February, though. 


In the meantime, I've been perusing the web in search of fun ways to get them involved in English speaking activities that are stress-free and fun.  A few days ago I stumbled across Storybird.com.  I absolutely love it.  I created an account and will begin inviting students next week.  The platform is simple and creative.  Basically, you choose a picture and use it to help you write something creative.  Easy, Fun, and Creative is the ticket! I hope they enjoy using it as much as I've enjoyed discovering it :)  Go check it out! http://storybird.com/

Present Perfect tense

One thing that I learned during my study of German is that it's not easy to say things right in a foreign language.  Especially if  you want to be grammatically correct.  I know why it's difficult for German native speakers to get this tense correct, but it's an endeavor worth undertaking.  I will simply upload a lot of files that teachers can use to help with this topic.  Some are worksheets, some are explanations of the tense and others are games that I either made myself or found online.  Have fun. :)


Present perfect tense

ESL Business English: Giving Feedback

One thing that I've noticed while teaching in Germany is that the people here are very honest.  This is an awesome trait to have, but there are times in business when you need to, oh, let's say, be gentle.  You want to give corrective feedback in a way that it is corrective and not destructive.  Yes, this is an art and it takes time to develop the skill.  Here's a video that will help students along the way to learning this powerful skill.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9sbVJDXj_T4

ESL Material

I promised that I would upload files for a wide variety of teaching topics and, yes, it's taken a while, but it's done.  Go look and see if there isn't something that will help you teach a class.  Have fun and good luck!

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B91PszKtVKWkekNuY0x1Q0xEMjg&usp=sharing

ESL Lesson Plan: Food

For level A1-A2: 
Ask "What do you eat for breakfast/lunch/ dinner?"  Show pictures of breakfast/lunch/dinner foods.  A good resource book is Longman's Photo Dictionary (ISBN 978-1-4082-6195-8) In section 8 you will find pictures of food.  Ask each student to tell what they eat for each meal.  Then introduce foods that weren't mentioned.  Ask them to write down what they think people eat in 3 other countries.  Pair the students up and have them tell their partner which countries/ foods they wrote down.  Students report to the class about their partners choices.  Hand out cards with different foods on them and ask students to walk around and ask "Do you eat______for breakfast/lunch/dinner?" If the student being asked has the matching card they answer yes and give the card to the student asking the question.  The student who is the first to match all of his/her cards wins the game.


For level B1:


Begin a conversation about what students normally eat for breakfast/lunch/dinner.  Ask if they shop everyday.  Ask students where they buy their food.   Then give them copies of pages 84-87 of English the American Way (ISBN 978-0-7386-0676-7)  Ask them to look at the words in bold first and tell in their own words what they mean.  If there are words that no one knows, tell them what they mean.  Then have them read the article out loud.  Discuss the contents briefly and then tell the students they will hear a short dialogue between a woman and a farmer at a farmer's market.  Play track 26 and then ask the students to summarize what they heard. 
Tell them they are going to then learn phrases dealing with eating together.  In the book Conversational American English  ( ISBN 978-0-07-174131-6) # 423 begins with phrases used to tell someone you are hungry.  Have students read the phrases orally, then tell them to choose a partner and write a short dialogue about food/hunger.  Then have the students read their dialogue to the class.
In the book 101 American Customs (ISBN978-0-8442-2407-7) you can introduce students to typical American 'table manners'.  Begin a discussion about good and bad manners in different countries.  One possible activity is to give students a country and have them find out about good/bad manners and report to the class.  Another variation is to have them tell the class about how to prepare their favorite food. 


For level B2:


Begin the conversation by asking students what traditional foods they eat on their holidays.  Have them tell what ingredients are in the food.  If they don't know the English names, google them.  Then put the students in pairs and give them a holiday.  Tell them they are to research the history of the traditional foods for that holiday.  Give them 30 minutes to do this.  Then have them report to the class their findings.

ESL Basic Introductions Level A1

Teaching beginners is a difficult task if you are a native speaker, because it's difficult to remember what it was like to be a baby learning a language for the first time.  I'm facing that challenge now, but I plan to conquer this challenge.  I've been brainstorming ideas of how to make it fun for beginners to introduce themselves.  One idea is making up cards with  names of famous people and having students use them to introduce themselves.   I've used it in the past and it works well, especially if the famous person is a bit eccentric. Here's one I created without famous people, I simply went to clipart and used pictures which aren't copyrighted.   https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B91PszKtVKWkVHctMC0yWFI2N3M/edit?usp=sharing  If you don't have time to do that, here's a worksheet that you can use to have them ask for basic information during a first introduction.  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B91PszKtVKWkVldzNTFnbjRTZzQ/edit?usp=sharing

Present Simple sentence/ question structure

I'm teaching a class of beginners at the moment and I haven't taught this level in a very long time.  I'm looking for a way to help them put simple sentences together.  One idea that I've used in the past is to print question words and other vocabulary that I know they will be familiar with and laminate them so that I can use them repeatedly.  I put the cards in the middle of the table and ask each student to choose words and form questions or sentences with them.  If you use this idea, make sure that you cover basic sentence structure and questions beforehand.  Depending on how many cards you make it could last 10-20 minutes. 


I also found a fun game for students to play online to help them practice this form.  It's here: http://www.eslgamesplus.com/present-simple-tense-action-verbs-interactive-monkey-game/

American Slang

I've found that most ESL students like to learn one way of saying something, this is most likely because they are afraid of making mistakes. I try to get my students to loosen up a bit and try out some new phrases.  It's a work in progress, but yesterday I received a few books in the mail that might very well help me accomplish this mission.  They are Conversational American English from McGraw-Hill and 101 American English Idioms from McGraw-Hill.  I just received them both and so I intend to try them out in my classes next week. Both books are full of funny sayings that we use on a daily basis in the States.  I hope the students will like learning something other than Business English. 

Gerunds after prepositions

There are these awful things in the English language called gerunds.  This crazy verb form with -ing on the end that drives most learners of the English language absolutely crazy.  I know, they're horrible, almost as bad as the present perfect tense.  They  can be mastered though, so don't give up just yet.  Here's a link to a page that has a really good explanation for the whole situation and it's  fairly straight forward and easy to understand.  http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verbs-gerunds_2.htm


If you happen to be one of my students and want to try your luck on a little quiz try this one. http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/structures/gerund_prepositions.htm 


Another good practice for the preposition and gerund form is a fill in the blank exercise which you can find here:  http://homepage.bnv-bamberg.de/englischinteraktiv/gerund-preposition.htm There is one for younger students on this site and the instructions are in German. http://www.kico4u.de/english/uebungen/8klasse/gerundnachadjpraep.htm  If you are interested in joining a forum for learning English you can try this one, but remember that you need to register to see the reason your answers are wrong, if you get any wrong. http://www.tolearnenglish.com/exercises/exercise-english-2/exercise-english-82507.php
Here's another explanation page that has more than just gerunds after prepositions on it.  http://www.grammar-test.englet.com/preposition-with-gerund and if you are an advanced student and need a little help in understanding gerunds, here's a link to Grammar Girl.  She'll help you out, for sure. http://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/what-is-a-gerund Okay, so you've read Grammar Girl's explanation and you're ready to give it a go, so try this http://www.seattlecentral.edu/faculty/dloos/Grammar/gerunds_infinitives/gerunds_after_prepositions_exercises1-4.htm and  yes, it's an American English site. :)  Are you still not sure about the whole situation and just want to practice one more time? I understand, so try this one.  http://www.world-english.org/gerundprep.htm 


As a teacher, I've found the best way to help students get the hang of this form is by sheer repetition.  Give loads of examples and start asking questions using these forms.  If the students are new to the game, then answer your own questions and write it out before you ask the questions of them.  In the end they will have to make a list and memorize the verbs which require the gerund form, but in the mean time you can make it a little competition to see who can get the most correct.  I took the form and made cards out of them and asked students to come up with their own examples, then if they use it correctly they keep the card.  The student with the most cards at the end wins the game.  If you have a larger class you can make more than one set of cards and put the students in groups to do this.  I hope it helps and makes it a little fun.

Simple Past versus Present Perfect

There's one tense in English that is a complete nightmare for native German speakers.  I understand why, I can speak German, too.  So in order to help those who are struggling through the murky waters of the past tenses, here's a little video (Yes! It's in German!) that may help to clear things up.  At least I hope so.  Here's the link: http://www.sofatutor.com/englisch/videos/simple-past-and-present-perfect?sofatutor_campaign=YouTube+Englisch&sofatutor_content=English%3A+Simple+Past+and+Present+Perfect&sofatutor_medium=VideoSeed&sofatutor_partner=youtube.com




For teacher's there are a ton of resources out there to help students practice the difference, because no matter how many times you explain it, the best way for them to learn is by doing.  I've collected tons of different explanations, worksheets and games and as soon as I figure out how to upload files to Blogger I'll put them up.

Spelling is difficult

A lot of ESL students have difficulties with spelling.  The differences between American and British English are no help.  I tell my students that as long as the word is spelled correctly in one of the two languages, it doesn't matter.  Normally they are learning it for work and, let's be honest, most people outside of the States and Great Britain don't speak English as their native language and may not know the differences themselves. 


Here's a short quiz students can take to check some commonly misspelled words.  http://a4esl.org/q/j/ck/mc-spelling.html   On a similar site you can find a lot of games to play online, which would be fun for young and old alike. http://www.manythings.org/cts/


Another question which arises in this area is, of course, should I correct students' mistakes?  Well, I don't always do this, especially in very low levels.  My reasoning is this; when I was learning German I often felt completely overwhelmed simply with pronunciation, so trying to spell the words and get everything grammatically correct was simply out of the question.  It took me a while before I could do everything simultaneously.  So, I keep this in mind when teaching beginners.  If the word could be confused (i.e. their, they're, there) I correct them and we normally have a good laugh about how messed up the English language is.  You can find more on this topic here http://esl.fis.edu/teachers/support/faq1.htm#2.  There is also a link for students to practice spelling by playing games on the site.


So here's a little note to students.  You can find rules and help with spelling here http://www.really-learn-english.com/how-to-improve-your-spelling.html


I'm still looking for a pdf to post for students with all of the rules and as soon as I find something I'll definitely post it.

Gerunds and Infinitives

I found some worksheets at Boggle's World http://bogglesworldesl.com/new_year_worksheets.htm that have to do with New Year's resolutions.  They looked fun and the students I used them with really liked the activities and talking about their plans for the new year.  One question came up pretty quickly though and it related to those wonderful things called gerunds.  I was well prepared for the question, though. Therefore, I taught a very brief lesson on it explaining that there are some verb forms that require a gerund to follow.  I promised them that we would work more with the form.  Now I'm on a search for a way to reduce their anxiety about saying something wrong and making it fun in the process.


Here's what I've found so far.  There's a cool explanation and short exercise here: http://deckedoutenglish.wordpress.com/2013/04/08/about-me-gerund-practice-warm-up/


There is also help with this topic on the ESL Library blog: http://www.esl-library.com/blog/2013/02/21/gerunds-and-infinitives-helpful-teaching-tips/


If you're only looking for a way to practice what you have already taught, then there are a lot of exercises and games on this website: http://www.eltbase.com/vtr_refs.php?id=37&filter=print


Another idea is to have students who have access to the internet in the classroom go here http://www.eslgamesworld.com/members/games/grammar/En%20garde/gerunds%20infinitive/gerunds%20or%20infinitive.html  and play the game online.  You can set it up for one or two players.


These are only a few ideas that I have at the moment.  I hope you find them helpful, too.

Podcasts for ESL students (American English)

I have a student who only has class once a week for one hour and struggles coming up with the time to listen/ read something in English outside of class.  This is a very common problem for working professionals.  I've tried to motivate him to read newspaper articles in English, but it's often difficult to find articles which are both interesting and short enough to be feasible. 

So what's the solution?  My current solution (this may change later!) is to suggest downloading and listening to podcasts.  It's easy to spend an hour or so perusing the net in order to find one or two that appeal to students' tastes.  I did this while learning German and it helped me tremendously.  Aside from the fact that the man doing the podcast was Austrian, with a strong accent, and I now live in Germany, it was fun for me to listen to all of his stories and explanations of vocabulary.

Here's a good one I found just a few minutes ago.  If you pay a few dollars a month you can even get the printout of the podcast and follow along.  Here's the link: http://culips.com/ and yes, it's American English!  (No offence to all the British English learners out there, it's just hard to find resources in American English.)

Here's yet another one http://www.podcastsinenglish.com/index.shtml .  It also has worksheets and transcripts, if you're willing to sign up and pay monthly. 

There's something out there for everyone, so just spend a little time online looking and listening.  Good luck and have fun!