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

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