Vocabulary & Grammar Auction: A Revision Game

Are you looking for a checking activity before a diagnostic or progress test about grammar and/or vocabulary? If your answer is yes you have just found the right post for you!

- What's an auction?
It's a public sale of goods or property, where people make higher and higher bids (= offers of money) for each thing, until the thing is sold to the person who will pay most.

- What's a Vocabulary&Grammar Auction?
It's a fun game which will let teachers understand which topics students have assimilated well and which aspects students need to repeat. This game is perfect for pre-teens and teens but it is also suitable for adults (as a teacher who borrowed the idea told me). It usually lasts 1 hour.

1) Preparation
a.Worksheet with about 20 questions about the topics learnt.

b. British pound banknotes [I printed them from Google Images] (£6000 each pair or group)

2) Procedure

a. Put students in pairs or in small groups (3-4)

b. Give them the same amount of banknotes and tell them they can bid up to £300 for each question.

c. Give students the worksheet and tell them they are going to answer 20 questions about the topics learnt. Time: 20 minutes.

d. Read the first question and students start bidding. When the bidding starts to fizzle out say, "Going once, going twice, sold!".

e. Get the money the pairs or groups bid. 

f.  One member of the highest bidder pair or group comes to board. If their answer is correct they will win the money the bid otherwise another pair or group have the chance to answer and get the banknotes.

g. Go through the 20 questions. The team with the highest number of banknotes will win the game.

3) Advantages

I think this game has two main advantages for students: 

1. Peer teaching/correction - during the first 20 minutes students can share their opinions and doubts. 

2. A remedy for shyness - if students are unable to answer or are insecure about a question they will just bid less or won't bid at all. In this way they won't get embarrassed in front of the others if they do not know how to answer a question.

If you play this game with your students, please let me know your impressions!

The Power Of Language Exchanges

Learning English in a non-English speaking country gives students fewer chances to practice in real life what they learn in the classroom. However, I am sure that even in the smallest town of the world there are a few native English speakers. Find them! Why? Read the post and you will understand!

A Language Exchange is considered a method of language learning based on mutual language practicing by learning partners who are speakers of different languages (ideally each learner is a native speaker in the language the proponent wants to learn). It is also called Tandem Language learning because there are usually two partners. They can meet in person, exchange e-mails, talk on the phone or today use social networks. It usually consists of an informal conversation which lasts about an hour, half the time is dedicated to one person and their language, the other half to the other person. In most cases the condition to take part to a self-directed tandem is to have a lower intermediate level.

When I set up my language studio besides teaching English, I gave Italian classes to the staff of the American ship and their families who settled down in my hometown. Once one of my Italian students ran into one of my American students during a break. They did not know how to communicate, whether in Italian or English. At that very moment I got the brilliant idea of holding a meeting in which my American and Italian students could practice their linguistic skills. I have been holding language exchanges since then. In order to allow all the students to take part to the event despite their levels I always plan carefully the activities.

CONVERSATION AND BOARD GAMES

Our language exchanges can be divided in two different kinds: CONVERSATION GAMES and BOARD GAMES. I'd like to share with you one example for each type.

Conversation Game: Speed dating

This is the first activity I did during a language exchange so as you can imagine it can be considered an ice-breaker. I got the idea from the speed dating taking place in bars to find a soulmate.  Students were matched in pairs (if the number of people speaking the two different languages is even it is much better). They were given the worksheet in the picture below which helped them to start the conversation. They started speaking in Italian but after five minutes I rang a bell and they had to talk  in English. Every five minutes I rang the bell and they swop the languages.

I recreated the relaxed atmosphere of the bar by offering them soft drinks, tea and coffee. They had so much fun as you can see in this picture.

Board Game: Visual Game

This is a team game. The aim of Visual Game is guessing what the member of your team has drawn. There are five  categories you can choose: house tools, risk, verbs and places, hobbies and sports, sayings and famous quotes. In the game we played I kept the categories but I wrote my own words, phrases and statements. It was a chance to review some vocabulary and learn some new expressions. My students did not use the notebook from the box but small whiteboards.  Italians had to guess what was drawn in English and the Americans in Italian.

5 REASONS WHY I THINK  LANGUAGE EXCHANGES ARE GREAT

In my opinion, learners get a lot of benefit from the language exchange. In this diagram you will find five reasons why language exchanges are great.

To sum up,  language exchanges cannot replace the teacher's lessons but they are a chance to practice what students learnt in the classroom and they let learners get closer to the culture of the language they are studying.

"The language exchange is a better way to learn and compare yourself with other people. You can listen to different pronunciations and accents", Silvia (upper-intermediate student)

Karen Saxby's seminar about Cambridge English Young Learners

Yesterday I attended a fantastic seminar by Karen Saxby. She was a teacher and she has been producing materials for young learners. Karen is the author of the books Fun for series for Starters, Movers and Flyers, the Story Fun series and KET for Schools Trainer.

I don't usually have the chance to attend seminars in my hometown or nearby so yesterday I was extremely excited to have this opportunity and Karen didn't let me down.

The seminar focused on Young Learners and it deals mainly about the following topics:
- intrinsic and extrinsic motivation
- creativity and critical thinking
- learners' success and self-confidence

Karen's presentation was bright, amusing and effective. She was able to involve all the audience. She expressed her ideas by using Realia and giving us effective practical examples. I absolutely agreed with her when she said that without caring and creativity instructions and directions are worthless to learners.

Even though the seminar focused on children and how making them feel important as individuals, I think creativity, motivation and fun are the keys for a successful learning process at any age.
In Karen's words, "you choose, you have the power". Only if we make our students feel indipendent and wonderfully different they will do their best.

Finally, two messages have stuck in my mind:
1) Our students will be much more motivated if we care about their well-being.
2) If your students are afraid of making mistakes, they will not feel confident about speaking or writing in English.  Tell them that British children make mistakes too! They say things like, I wented to school. Those mens on television are funny. Making mistakes and learning how to  correct them is part of the natural process of language learning. So tell your students not to be afraid to try using new words or new structures. They'll get them right if they practice... ! AND HAVE FUN in your classrooms. 

Thank you, Karen.

Love English Awards 2013: if you like my blog, vote for it!

To my extreme surprise, I got nominated for the Macmillan Love English Awards 2013. If you like my blog, you can vote for it through this link. Thank you for following me!

http://www.macmillandictionary.com/love-english-awards/voting-blog-2013.html

My first post for the Teaching English British Council blog

This is my first  post for the Teaching English British Council blog. I am so grateful for having this chance. It means a lot to me. I will learn a lot from the other illustrious associates and I will share my experience with other teachers from all over the world.

This post is about teenagers and five tips to teach them successfully. I do hope you enjoy it! If you use any of the strategies mentioned, please let me know your feedback!

https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/blogs/larissa84/top-5-tips-teaching-teenagers-larissa-albano

Social networks help teenagers improve their speaking skills

Italian parents always complain about the time their teenage children waste in front of a computer screen or on their smartphones. They say their children do not talk anymore, they just text.
Instead of blaming my teenage students I prefer using their "bad habit" to make them improve their English, especially their speaking skills.
A few months ago I published a post about how to use the Internet and Facebook to engage teenage students, today I'd like to share with you a lesson plan which might useful if your students are fond of social networking apps.

Students: Teenagers
Level: A2

Lesson plan
1) Warm-up: Write the following questions on the board
- Do you have a smartphone, PC, I-pod, I-pad?
- What social networks do you know?
- What do you use social networks or apps for?
Students ask and answer the questions in pairs.
TIP: Monitor students to check they are on the task and at the end of the activity ask some students randomly what their partner have told them. (It's a chance to practice the"s" of the third person singular)
ALTERNATIVE ACTIVITY: If you have a small ball like this

Students throw the ball and choose a question to ask to each other.

2) Show students this logotype

and ask them if they know which social network it stands for.

If they know it you can go to step 3 if they don't you can play the hangman like this

3) Prediction: Before showing students this infographic about Anomo (I took it from Metro.uk), 

write down these numbers on the board (I chose them to practice their pronunciation). In groups of 3 students predict in which way they refer to Anomo.

10,000

3m

90%

9 out of 10

540

Then hand out the infographic and ask them to check whether their predictions were correct or not.

4) Now focus students' attention on the expressions:

- ICE-BREAKER GAME

- GET-TO-KNOW-YOU-GAME

from the infographic, elicit their meaning and then show them this picture

5) Students write 5 "get-to-know"questions on 5 different pieces of paper.
Then they fold and put them in a plastic bag. Now shake the bag and ask a student to pick up a paper. S/he will answer a question and decide who will be the next one to reply.

At the end of the lesson students  will have:
- practiced the question forms,
- improved their speaking skill,
- enhanced their rapport with each other.

If you try this lesson plan, please let me know your feedback.

7 ways to use INFOGRAPHICS in the English classroom

This is my first post of 2014 and I'd like to kick off the new year by writing about the latest popular phenomenon on the web: INFOGRAPHICS.

What is an infographic?
An Infographic (information graphic)  is a visual representation of a data set or instructive material. It takes a large amount of information in text or numerical form and then condenses it into a combination of images and text, allowing viewers to quickly grasp the essential insights the data contains.

Can infographics be used in the English classroom?
Yes, of course. These are 7 ways to use INFOGRAPHICS in the English classroom.

1. TO TEACH (OR REVIEW) NUMBERS - Let's face the truth: students do not like numbers. Maybe because it's the first thing they learn when they study a foreign language, (sometimes even before the alphabet). In infographics you can find very long numbers and your students can practice their pronunciation.
Tip: When a student does not know (or does not remember) the pronunciation of a number I usually ask to the class randomly until someone pronounces it correctly. Afterwards we drill it chorally.

2. TO TEACH NEW VOCABULARY - Each infographic is an incredible source of new vocabulary. You can find infographics about music, religion, education, cinema, jobs, social networks etc. Here you are some examples from the free newspaper Metro.uk (e-edition).

3. TO MAKE PREDICTIONS  - In my humble opinion this is the funniest way you can use infographics for. I usually copy only some numbers and the topic on the board and let my students guess what those numbers are related to. My students usually come up with many "contrasting" ideas which lead to li(o)vely debates.
Tip: Students'minds may go blank when they see all those numbers, give examples/ideas.

4. TO RETRIEVE INFORMATION - This activity usually comes after making predictions. Students have to check whether their suppositions were true or false by reading the infographic.
Tip: For lower levels you can simply prepare a set of questions and ask your students to answer them.

5. TO PRACTICE BUSINESS PRESENTATIONS - I'm sure that among your students there is a business person always in troubles with their presentations at the workplace. Well, infographics can be used as PPT slides while the students rehearse for their speech.
Tip: Keep the infographics on the PC and let your students use a pencil while they are talking, it will make them feel more confident.

6. TO ELABORATE - We always ask our students to sum up texts. Why don't we try to do the opposite? Why don't we ask them to elaborate short pieces of information into something detailed? Give your students an infographic and ask them to write an article starting from the information they have. It is an excellent exercise to practice their writing skills.

7. TO COLLECT USEFUL INFORMATION - We can use infographics but we can also create them! http://www.easel.ly and http://infogr.am are two free websites your students can use to make their own infographics. My students and I usually create them at the of the year to review what we have studied or to concentrate useful information for the exams. Eventually, we print the infographics out and stick them on the walls.

Do you use infographics in your English classes? How? Please, share your experience with me!