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 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/ 

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/ 

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. 

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!

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!

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.

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.