Games in the classroom

What do you think about playing games in your classroom as a tool for teaching and learning a foreign language? Many people regard games as a way of wasting time because you can`t see instant progress in the students. In fact, games are seen as part of a recess rather than an essential part of the class and that´s why you can still observe many teacher presentation lessons in Chile`s classrooms . However, we can use games as a way to control behavior and as a subconscious technique to teach a foreign language like English.

Students love games because, as I said before, they don`t see them as an essential part of the class. Therefore, they relax and are willing to be a part of this massive recess. They start “magically” speaking in English (in the foreign language) if doing so they can obtain points for their group, and yes, it is true that the English used is not going to be of the best quality, but at least they are applying what they have in their hard disks. Students love competition and as teachers we should take advantage from that and teach not only a certain language , but also values regarding a fair competition. Also, and I will finish up with this, always use games as a way of prizing students for good behavior. We can always come back to have those boring English sessions but the idea is to make it fun to learn.

Games are not a waste of time!

Here I will give you the names of some games

-          Vocabulary games: hungman, hot potato, musical ball, riddles etc.

-          Speaking game:  guess game (description game).

-          Phonetics game: tong twisters, the telephone.

-          Grammar: puzzles.

Links of interest regarding games

http://www.letshavefunwithenglish.com/games.html

http://activities.bradleys-english-school.com/

http://eslgamesworld.com/members/games/ClassroomGames/index.html

Classroom Management

Do you imagine yourself reacting this way with one of your students? How can we improve classroom management?

Well, here I enclose a few tips that you may find useful.

- Try to use a point system with your students. At the end of the month you should prize the students with most points among the class.

- Always congratulate good attitudes.

- Try to keep negative liders in the first seats.

- Don’t attack students who are misbehaving, talk to him/her in private to check if there is any problem. If the student keeps misbehaving, then you have to take strict measures about it.

- Always bring extra activities to the classroom in case students finish quicker than you thought.

To be honest, I’d like to throw some erasers to some of my students. Teaching is a very stressful profession since we have to deal with so many students in small rooms and a lot of paperwork. Patience is the key word that we, as priests of education, have to give as a sacrifice to the gods every single day of our lives. Try to be very organized and if you are stressed don’ take it with your students.

phonetics for little kids

Phonetics is something we never know how to teach when dealing with little kids. Some teachers think students will get confused with phonetic symbols and some others think Phonetics is not really important for the curriculum. But actually, we can’t deny pronunciation is crucial in order to learn a second language. So, I wanted to share a really nice web page in which you can train your students in this field without being boring or confusing.
Enjoy!
http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/

Free documentaries in English on-line

I want to share a very useful link I found in which we can enjoy different documentaries in English. One of them "The Adventure of English " tells the history of the English language since its origin.
I highly recommend to use this documentary for advanced students which are interested in language and literature. Here I enclose a proposal for a lesson plan based on this documentary.

Lesson Plan

Pre-activity: ask your students why language is so important for human beings. Ask them if they know anything about English, make them talk in pairs, then, share some answers.
While- activity:  You can make your students watch this documentary, fill a worksheet with questions about it while they watch.
Post- activities:  1. They can create an activity related with the history of English (crossword, puzzle, etc)
                            2. You can make yor students prepare an small report about a certain period of the      history of the English language for the whole class as a round up activity-.

Oops, I almost forget, here is the link:

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/adventure-of-english/

How to teach English to little kids?

This year I will start teaching English to little kids, which is actually something I have never done before so I came across this article and I wanted to share it with you:
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/noelia-filipponi/notes-based-seminar-how-teach-kindergarten-level-first-three-forms

In this page you will find some tips to teach at a kindergarden level in which images, songs and TPR activities are very important  in the acquiring process of a foreign language at this particular age. Games are also a good technique, but you should apply some other strategies along.